


Aloy 2.0

by Quantum_Reality



Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, New Game Plus Challenge, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 28,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27680891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantum_Reality/pseuds/Quantum_Reality
Summary: Aloy wakes up in her bed in Rost's cabin, two days before the Proving. She can't shake what seems to have been an impossible dream, but the reality dawns on her: the dream is, indeed, prophecy. What she does with it will be up to her.
Comments: 45
Kudos: 114





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [I've Done This Before (but i'll be better this time)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20459531) by [Serie11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11). 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I finished the game recently, and wasn't going to start a NG+ yet but SOMEHOW I ended up doing it ANYWAY and, having seen other people do a NG+ fic plus being a total sucker for time travel in any 'verse I can make it work in, I decided I couldn't let that plot bunny go.
> 
> So here you are! Unbetaed, but regardless of whether or not it was, all errors and omisions are mine and mine alone.

Aloy awoke with a start, breathing heavily.

The dream? nightmare? vision? swam in her mind as she struggled to get her bearings in the cabin she and Rost shared.

She had gone to bed the night before at the usual time – not long after full night had settled in. Rost had told her they’d do some hunting that morning, two days before the Proving. As far as Aloy was concerned, the day before hadn’t been at all unusual. She’d done basically all the things a would-be Brave would do prior to the Proving – checked her bow, practiced shooting at Grazers, and otherwise had an ordinary day.

But that… _vision_.

It was as though Aloy had lived out _months_ of a future ahead of her!

Just to be sure, she grabbed for her Focus, attached it to the side of her head, and activated the function which reckoned the date and time in the system of the Old Ones.

Sure enough, it was just one day after the previous – as it should be.

And yet—

She distinctly recalled that her Focus had reported a date around six months ahead when she had last checked after leaving that… place. That “ranch” of Elisabet Sobeck’s – the dead woman who (Aloy shivered) looked so much like her.

 _And Rost had died_.

She had gone to his grave several times over the course of those months, talking to him though he could never answer back – a tragic fulfillment of the prophetic statement she’d made to him when trying to argue him out of leaving her forever.

A suspicious wetness at her eyes threatened to spill over as the utter _loss_ overwhelmed her: Rost had been the one constant in her life. Never too affectionate, but always watchful for her well-being, and willing to train her as hard as he could so she could win at the Proving.

Then Aloy shook her head firmly. As _real_ as that dream or vision or who knew what had been, it _was_ just a dream – wasn’t it?

The first crack in Aloy’s resolve to set the whole thing aside had come when the conversation between her and a clearly-alive Rost had been suspiciously similar to that of her dream-vision, though it felt so long ago to her. And that strange _relief_ she’d felt at seeing him again wouldn’t go away.

Still, she reasoned, _it was the kind of conversation Rost would’ve had with her anyway, leading up to the Proving._

So why, then, wondered Aloy, did she keep expecting to see red-tinged machines across the land? And strange masked people from that… “Eclipse” group?

 _No, that’s just a ridiculous fantasy_ , Aloy admonished herself as she trudged towards the north gate at the edge of the Embrace. _But Karst had finally confessed why he dealt with outcasts; he had been one himself once_ , that nagging inner voice reminded her. _And Odd Grata_ did _lose her prayer beads over at that eastern outlook towards All-Mother._

All that fell by the wayside as she spotted Rost near the campfire by the gate, and after talking with him about her plan that she’d worked out to stay in contact, they settled in for the coming night.

* * *

The next crack in the armor of Aloy’s resolve to ignore that strange dream-vision had been the Sawtooth.

For all that she supposedly had never seen such a machine before, the first utterance of the name by Rost had immediately called to mind a hazy vision of a large, savage machine which made fearsomely loud noises as it trod the landscape.

And when she’d _seen_ it—

The memory practically slammed into her as she recalled her _previous_ defeat of that machine in stark clarity: she’d laid out some tripwires while hidden in the grass, then leaped out, her spear arcing in the air to clash against its metal hide; defeating it after several blows.

Almost unconsciously, half-hearing Rost’s final words, now absolutely identical – she _knew_ that to be so, now – she keyed on her Focus, overlaying the machine’s tracks as it went through its patrol path. When its clanking stopped momentarily at the farthest distance away from her, she quickly crept down to the same spot as the previous time – nearest the rock Rost was now hiding safely behind – and laid out as many trip wires as she held in her supply sack. _Not enough time to make more,_ she decided as she quickly slipped into the nearby tall grass, crouching as she did so.

Rost had always taught her that patience counted for everything in a hunt, be it catching an animal or a machine. Yet Aloy found herself keying on the timer on her focus, watching the last two of the pairs of numbers – “seconds”, the Focus called them, march forth almost too slowly as the Sawtooth unconcernedly clanked closer and closer.

Finally, though, its foot carelessly swept across the shock wires, setting them off in a brilliant blue arc of light. It stood still, unable to move—

Aloy, her body primed, leaped out and automatically aimed her spear _precisely_ at that weak spot which she somehow _knew_ would critically injure the machine, maybe even kill it in one blow – and it landed true, the Sawtooth crashing over onto its side, the light already fading out of its eyes as she yanked her spear back.

Aloy’s heart hammered in her chest as she struggled to process: _How had she known that skill?!_

She certainly had never learned the most critical spots of any machine up to that point, but she most _definitely_ knew in that dream-vision, she had learned about such weak spots from that man, Erend, and from that woman, Talanah. Both of whom should be utter strangers to her, yet somehow were not.

The crunching of Rost’s feet against the ground shook Aloy out of her reverie, and she began examining the Sawtooth for machine parts to scavenge: outcast or not, any Nora would be a fool to waste a valuable resource for shards, blaze, lenses, and possibly machine hearts (though among the Nora, the only real value for that last was for shards).

Rost called out behind her, “Why did I bring you here?”

 _Not to ask questions_ , echoed in Aloy’s mind.

Instead, she stood up and eyed Rost steadily as she placed her scavenged parts with the rest of her supplies, and said, “You wanted me to test myself against a new, dangerous machine, didn’t you?”

That hadn’t been the right answer in the dream-vision, but this would be the final proof…

Rost shook his head. “No. Follow.”

As dawn broke across the Nora lands, Rost brought Aloy to a high vantage point from which they could look back into the Embrace. “Aloy, I brought you here because – because when you join the tribe—”

“I don’t _need_ the tribe!” spat Aloy. “At best, they ignore me. At worst, they throw rocks at me like that kid did once.”

Rost clasped her shoulder, turning her to him. An earnest expression on his face, he said, “But I’ve never said the tribe wouldn’t need _you_! Think about the Sawtooth: if you hadn’t killed it, how many more Braves might it have killed before they finally managed to kill it? The lesson is there, Aloy.”

Aloy half-whispered as she stood stock-still, a chill running down her spine, “The strength to stand alone is the strength to make a stand. To serve a purpose larger than myself.”

Rost, mistaking her reaction, smiled slightly. “Good, Aloy. That was the lesson: the tribe is bigger than any one Nora alone. And what you have to give to the tribe will only make the entire tribe stronger for it.”

The chill down Aloy’s spine, however, was because of the stark, unmistakable proof that now lay before her: _she had somehow lived this life in her dream_.

A dream that had somehow imparted new skills to her – and also tested her to the limits of her strength, skills and intelligence not just once, but many times. A dream that had told her the truth of _who_ and _what_ she was: another Elisabet Sobeck with the awful task of once again saving the world from utter destruction.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, in case it isn't obvious, this fic has spoilers for The Frozen Wilds in addition to spoilers for the main game. Also, I've taken a little bit of artistic licence with the New Game+ mechanic to avoid making Aloy too OP relative to the quest she's going to undertake. Gotta give her a _bit_ of a challenge here.

“I will wait for you by the entrance to Mother’s Heart, Aloy. In the meantime, set your mind on the challenges which will come during the Proving,” announced Rost as they stood inside the Embrace once more.

Aloy nodded. Not wanting to think about having to leave Rost a _second_ time, she simply said, “I figured something else out about your lesson; if I’m going to stand for something, it’ll have to be something I believe in.”

 _And that,_ Aloy thought, _had been true for Elisabet as well._ Elisabet Sobeck had stood firm in her belief, with every fiber of her being, that the plan she had to save the world _would_ work – because it was _her_ plan, and because nothing else had a remotely similar chance of working.

But, Aloy knew, she was not just a copy of Elisabet; she was her own person – just with some lucky extra breaks in her favor, such as finding a Focus at a young age (like the Old Ones must have done, she realized) and with the same native intelligence as her sort-of-mother.

Rost smiled. “I hope you find that purpose, whatever it may be, Aloy.”

Aloy, knowing now that Rost would not go back to the cabin, simply said, “I’ll see you at Mother’s Heart later today, then.”

Rost inclined his head, then went on down the trail toward the north. Aloy, for her part, struck out directly due west, eager to get back to the cabin and work out her next steps.

* * *

At the entrance gate to the cabin, the midmorning sun shining at Aloy’s back, she took a deep breath and looked across at the grounds which had been the anchor for her life in the Embrace. _It feels more like home again, now that I have Rost once more._

WIth that, she slowly wandered around the entire fenced confines, taking in every nick and scrape of the target Grazers as she recalled many a practice session with her arrow and her spear. In addition, she gathered what Salvebrush and Ridgewood she’d need.

Her wanderings, partly out of a nostalgia that seemed odd and yet necessary, took her around the back of the cabin, only to spot—

“What’s a supply crate doing back there?!” blurted Aloy aloud.

Wedged in the gap between the back wall and the rock face behind the cabin sat a fairly large supply crate which was about as long as a spear and just wide enough to fit; Aloy judged it to be considerably bigger than the ones Teb and his Carja helpers had scattered around Meridian, but smaller than the absolutely enormous ones she’d seen inside some of the Old Ones’ places.

Aloy opened it, and gasped in stunned disbelief.

_How was Sylens’s spear in there? And those outfits!_

Aloy knelt to take a closer look, trying to work out how the things she’d used in her dream took on a physical reality.

It was not impossible, Aloy allowed, for dreams to be premonitions; the human brain worked in mysterious ways and from what she had managed to gather, even the Old Ones were not fully sure about its limitations (or lack of them).

But for actual _objects_ to rematerialize for her use?!

She reached out, clasping the spear, feeling its solidity and weight. It was largely made of metal, and if she remembered right, it tended to shift differently when she pivoted it because it was longer than her other spear. After a few experimental jabs, thrusts, and swipes, she knew it to be exactly the same spear as previously. And, unless she was mistaken, those modifications she’d put on it after getting Kamut’s help were – _yep, there they are! The only thing missing is that override module I stole off the Corruptor._

She didn’t often have reason to make expostulations that her Focus told her were “colorful” ones (as CYAN would have put it), but she just _had_ to now.

“Holy _shit!_ ” she yelled as she leaped into the air, her fists raised in exultation. “Amazing!”

She spent the next few minutes quickly inventorying the crate: she had a number of weapons modifications, outfit modifications, a sampling of machine hearts and lenses, and most critically, almost every arrow, bomb, and tripwire (along with the weapons that held them) she’d need; her eye caught the glint from the golden Hunter’s Lodge bow, in particular. And as for outfits, she had her stealth-optimized Nora outfit, as well as a fire-resistance optimized Carja Blazon outfit. The Shadow Carja disguise was missing, but that wasn’t too much of a loss. The special armor of the Old Ones was also missing, but she knew how to get it again if she wanted.

The only things missing that she really would’ve liked to have had were the Werak Chieftain outfit, and those ridiculously overcharged Banuk weapons she’d gotten customized with Varga’s help. _Can’t have everything_ , Aloy mused.

But even with stuff she _did_ have, she’d basically be a one-woman war machine!

But just as she exulted in her newfound arsenal, she stopped, standing stock-still as two realizations crashed in, utterly damping her enthusiasm.

First, _how the hell would she explain all this to Rost?_

And second, _if Sylens is creeping around in my Focus he’s gonna see that spear and wonder how I got a copy of it._

With heavy heart, Aloy took only the shards and a couple of decent modifications for her bow and one for the outfit Teb would give her, and jammed the rest the items she’d found back inside the supply crate and slammed it shut. She would, she decided, have to make do with her ordinary bow (modified as inconspicuously as she could get away with) and spear, and find a way to sneak all that stuff out later. She’d especially need the larger supply pack she found in the crate to hold all that stuff, along with what she already had on her.

The only good part was that if she had her timings right, Sylens wouldn’t start nosing around until Helis (and HADES) saw her through Olin’s Focus.

So, the question immediately before her was, should she shift events earlier, or later?

Aloy _could_ avoid Olin entirely, but that might also cause her to miss her chance to reconnect with Erend. Then, too, if she missed Olin, perhaps the Eclipse party coming to sabotage the Proving would be smaller, and more easily dealt with.

If she judged timelines and travel distances correctly, Aloy realized someone in the Shadow Carja – a spy in Meridian, maybe? – must have tipped off Helis that a big diplomatic mission was going on Avad’s behalf to Nora territory. So Olin or no Olin, the Eclipse would’ve spotted an opportunity to sow discord in any case, and deal with a few “savages” in the process.

But on the other hand, the thought of baiting Helis into a trap was almost irresistible. The most satisfying part of her dream-vision involving him had been the time she got to throw his words back at him: “Turn your face to the sun and think about THAT!” If she could bump him off or at least critically injure him, she would take a powerful man out of the running and possibly even stop the destruction of the Nora later that year. Then there would just be that pompous fool Bahavas who would probably keel over if you launched a Daemonic Watcher at him.

Another factor was that Eclipse had been working on a _lot_ of Tallnecks, for one thing, and for another, had practically set up shop in a Cauldron. The second was a pretty short step to doing what HEPHAESTUS was already doing – repurposing a Cauldron for their own ends, and having that kind of facility in the Eclipse’s, and thus HADES’s, control was not a comforting thought. And a Tallneck that could stomp anything it pleased and be almost unkillable was _not_ a project Aloy wanted to see happen, either.

By bringing HADES’s singular attention on her, and away from anything else it was interested in, at least she could control what events were likely to come from that quarter: HADES would resume its intense desire to reach the Spire at Meridian, and she knew precisely where the Master Override was (it wasn’t on her spear – which, again, can’t have everything). She could even skip the Zero Dawn facility if she wanted to, and avoid that very harrowing adventure with a Behemoth.

 _All right, then_ , decided Aloy. _Chat with Olin, say hi to Erend, do the Blessing, and then get to see Vala again – and keep her alive this time._

A small smile crossed Aloy’s face at the thought that maybe this time around, she might get to know both of Sona’s children. And Rost, come what may, _would_ stay alive!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You'll note some inevitable re-treading of sidequests and main quests in this game to some extent. I've tried to keep them fresh and reasonably condensed so as not to bore you too much :-) Plus, it allows for some amusing fourth wall leaning.

The first thing, Aloy decided, was that she could get her older spear fixed up a bit to boost its offensive capacity. So off she went to find Thok, who had indeed fallen by the wayside just over the bridge towards the Strider site in the approximate middle of the Embrace.

She ran up to him and knelt down. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, for the most part,” groaned Thok. He winced and tried to brace himself on his elbow to push himself upright. “Just… need to get my leg bandaged up. Name’s Thok, by the way.”

“You’ll actually talk to an outcast, huh?” Aloy couldn’t quite keep the sardonic tone out of her voice.

“I’m desperate!” admitted Thok. “I’ll take any consequences; just – I can’t save my daughter Arana and I need help! My leg gave out.”

“From the bad scratch on it I’d say after you got mauled by something,” noted Aloy.

Thok shook his head ruefully. “I went after a Scrapper over by Mother’s Cradle and – well, it managed to get the better of me. Worse, I left my spear stuck in it. It’s the only thing Arana has left of her mother Edena, so she went to go and get it back.”

Aloy concluded, “Meaning she’s gone to fight a Scrapper.” She heaved a sigh. “Okay, sit tight. I’ll be back.”

Sure enough, she found Arana up on a ledge surrounded by screeching Watchers. _How_ , wondered Aloy, _did a teenage Nora grow up not even able to take down some stupid Watchers?_

It wasn’t like an arrow shot to the eye was _that_ hard, honestly.

Deciding to dispense with any subtlety, Aloy waded in, spear flashing and arrows flying, and within just a few minutes, four very wrecked Watchers lay about her. Arana jumped down to greet Aloy, her feet hitting the ground heavily as she bent her knees to take the impact.

“Thank you so much!” exclaimed Arana.

“Hi. I guess you’re… Arana?” At the other girl’s nod, Aloy continued. “I met a man named Thok who was worried about his daughter. Said she went after a Scrapper near Mother’s Cradle, so it wasn’t hard to work out you might be her. Anyway, look, he’s worried about you and his leg isn’t in good shape.”

Arana shook her head. “Not until I get that spear back! I can’t believe he lost it!”

Aloy sighed. “All right then. I’ll find the Scrapper with your spear in it.” She pointed back the way she’d came. “Go back that way and see to your father, okay?”

Arana’s footfalls died away as she dashed off back in the direction of Mother’s Heart. Meanwhile, for Aloy, it was about time she started doing what she did best: see the unseen. She tapped her Focus’s identification mode to life, and used it to compare one of Arana’s footsteps to any nearby, and as Aloy carefully walked, it began reconstructing Arana’s footsteps away from the Scrapper which she’d tried to go after.

One set of Scrapper footsteps later (and some stealthy maneuvering around machine herds in the process), she went past the Southern Embrace gate, ending up at the base of the small valley she needed to climb up to in order to spot which Scrapper had the tell-tale spear sticking out of it.

As she spotted handholds on the rocks on the right side of the entrance, she snickered to herself, “Dead easy compared to knocking down six Fireclaws.”

Sure enough, from her vantage point high up along the rope, she unerringly hit the top components on each Scrapper, sending them all crashing down to the ground in a satisfying sparkle of blue arcs. After that, it was just a matter of leaping straight down onto the unsuspecting guard Watcher (whose eye was still yellow at that moment) and slamming the point of her spear exactly where she knew it would do the most damage, critically hitting it and rendering it a useless hulk in one blow.

She definitely remembered cultivating _that_ handy trick too with Talanah’s help.

Dispatching the other Watcher at the far end of the clearing was also trivial, with one arrow directly to the eye doing the trick.

The spear retrieval and return journey was almost anticlimactic, and Aloy half-heard Arana’s and Thok’s effusive thanks and congratulations, knowing he would offer to help fix up her spear soon enough – and that too was done with dispatch, Aloy needing only to mutter appropriately thankful or soothing phrases as needed.

Finally, Arana helped Thok to his feet, and they both bade Aloy goodbye and good luck at the Proving.

Aloy looked towards Mother’s Heart, and reluctantly began trudging in that direction. Even if all went well, she might never see Rost again, and each football brought that moment closer and closer.

* * *

The final meeting with Rost had been as bittersweet the second time as it had the first.

At least, knowing now the sacrifices Rost had made, in her lifetime and before, Aloy didn’t lash out spitefully, accusing him of throwing her away. (All-Mother, but the _guilt_ after that in her dream-vision…!)

She’d just said, “Wherever you go, I’ll try to follow, Rost. I know you would rather stay away from me because I’m supposed to be of the tribe, but whatever you do, stay alive, please. I’d rather know you’re alive and out there than dead in a grave I can visit.”

And then, completely uncharacteristically, she’d leaped out to engulf him in a hug, taking strength from his strength and _feeling_ the solidity of his presence. Somewhat startled, Rost extended his arms out tentatively, then held her in return. His voice rumbled against her as he said, “Thank you, Aloy. May All-Mother bless you.”

“And you,” she whispered as she stepped back, blinking rapidly.

Rost handed over a figurine Aloy well-remembered and said, “Keep it. To remember.”

Trying not to choke up, Aloy blinked rapidly and kept her voice steady as she said, “I will. Always.”

Rost nodded once, then turned and went back down the trail, away from Mother’s Heart. Where he went, she knew not, except that he _would be_ watching the Proving. Which meant that whatever Helis did, he was _not_ going to kill Rost if Aloy had anything to say about it.

Already, she was turning over in her mind how that handy supply crate hiding behind the cabin could help: it wouldn’t be impossible to sneak back under cover of darkness before the night-time call at the bunkhouse for the would-be Braves, and pick up some traps and bombs to catch the Eclipse unaware.

And even if that did prove impossible, with what she knew now, nothing was stopping her from whipping up some Blast Bombs or some traps later that night, and improvising a sling if she couldn’t get one at the Nora merchants to sell to her. She felt all those shards she’d collected jingling against each other as she walked.

She went to the entry doors, unconcerned at the Nora Braves menacingly stepping forward to bar her as an outcast. She just stood her ground, arms crossed, giving them the same glare she’d seen Elisabet give Ted Faro. She said, “I’ll just wait right here for High Matriarch Teersa. We’ll see what she has to say.”

Sure enough, the gates opened a few moments later, and Teersa called out, “Aloy! Come in, come in!” To the Braves, she admonished, “Remember yourselves! Our law says that any child who is an outcast may rejoin us for the Proving. Now step aside and don’t be so rude.”

The Braves hurriedly straightened up, clearing the way for Aloy to step closer to Teersa. She smiled at the older woman and said, “Thank you, Teersa. Rost spoke of you on occasion, usually when he mentioned my Naming.”

Teersa cackled, “All-Mother spoke your name back loudly and clearly that day!” Her expression grew solemn. “But I must leave you, Aloy; the Carja are here on a mission, and many still hate the Carja so! You have an old friend waiting for you up that way; you should go see him!”

Aloy ducked her head briefly, sketching a small bow, before going off to her right, strolling past the singing and dancing Nora. Sure enough, within a minute, Teb’s voice called out, “Aloy! Is that you? Come here, I have something for you!”

Aloy grinned as she strode up to the would-be Brave, now Stitcher, for the Nora tribe. “Hi! Uh, Teb, right?”

Teb smiled broadly. “I’m glad you remember me. You saved me that day I fell off the cliffs, all those years ago, and I’ve wanted to give you some long-overdue thanks. I’d hear your name every now and then, usually... with some less flattering terms next to it, but Sona saw you once, practicing the Brave trails. She just said, ‘There’s one to watch at her Proving,’ to her children.”

 _Really?_ Aloy’s eyebrows went up as she pondered the implications of Sona’s favorable impressions of her.

Returning to the immediate present, she saw Teb holding out his specially-modified Nora Brave outfit. In that prophetic dream-world of hers, he had always believed in her, and that counted for a lot in her mind. She reached out gratefully for the clothes, and said, “I’ll get these on shortly. Thank you. I have to pay you for these—”

Teb held his hand out. “Please, don’t. As I said, it’s my thanks, long overdue. Just hope it helps you at the Proving.”

Aloy nodded firmly. “It will.” She knew of at least one damage-resistance modification she could add, to enhance the integrity of the outfit should she take a tumble (or get hit by an Eclipse arrow).

Teb continued, “You might want to get moving to the Matriarch’s Lodge; you can’t miss it. There’s an angry mob around it right now, thanks to the Carja showing up for the first time in years. But before you leave, is there anything else you want or need that might help in the Proving?”

It barely registered at first and Aloy was on the verge of politely declining when she realized she could get Helis’s attention _and_ avoid Sylens at the same time. She blurted, “Actually, there is!”

“Name it!” Teb spread his arms wide, gesturing at his many wares.

Aloy grinned. “Appreciate the selection, but what I need from you is this. I want you to keep my Focus until we break for the night. Can you keep it in a safe place that won’t get jostled a lot?”

Aloy reached up, her hand hesitating for a moment. To be Focus-less was a huge adjustment, but Rost had always taught her how to handle the wilds without any crutches from things like Focuses. Still, that brief spike of despair and terror she’d felt when Helis had utterly ground her Focus into pieces had _not_ been pleasant.

 _It’s for the greater good,_ Aloy reminded herself.

She plucked her Focus off her head and handed it over to Teb, who cautiously, almost reverently held it in his hands. “Are you _sure_ you want me to keep this for now? I think you used it somehow, to guide me past those machines. If it’s that useful to you—”

Aloy nodded briskly. “It is. But I worry that some Braves here may take exception to me being here, and I would rather that Focus not be damaged in a fight.”

Teb grimaced. “You’re not totally wrong. I overheard Resh – he’s the Second to the War-Chief Sona – grumbling about ‘that red-head’ he’s seen occasionally on the Brave trails.”

Aloy wanted to roll her eyes. _Resh, that utter small-minded pain in the—_

Before she could carry that train of thought any further, Aloy wrenched her thoughts back to her plans at hand and said, “The Focus?”

“Yes, of course! I’ll put it with my sewing kit, here, by the leather thread and patch-pieces.” And so saying, Teb secreted said Focus in a bag he had leaning up against one of the wooden pillars behind him.

“ _Thank_ you, Teb. You have no idea what this means to me,” Aloy said with a fervent grip on Teb’s arm for emphasis.

“I’ll, uh, see you around, then?”

“You will.” Aloy smiled and walked away, taking in the noises of Mother’s Heart and remarking how different (or similar) they sounded compared to Meridian.

_Next up, Erend and Olin._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: https://horizon.fandom.com/wiki/Rost%27s_Grave has all the initial options which depend on the flashpoint mentioned in this chapter.


	4. Chapter 4

After having slipped behind a large cabin to swap outfits, a thought occurred to Aloy as she walked towards the Matriarch’s Lodge: _why had Rost never told her of the Derangement?_

It wasn’t like he couldn’t have been aware of it, considering he had literally had her fight a Sawtooth – a machine that hadn’t _existed_ before about ten years ago. And certainly, even in the Embrace, Watchers were likely to go on the attack if they saw you, while Striders’ eyes would go red before they spooked and ran; some Striders would even stay behind and take a run right at you to defend the rest of their herd.

And yet, Aloy’s dim memory of her first serious training under Rost’s guidance told her their eyes once went _yellow_ if they got spooked. All Rost had had to do was yell “Git!” and they just zoomed off.

If ever Aloy had needed proof that the Derangement was progressing onward within her own lifetime, that one memory was all she needed.

 _Maybe_ , allowed Aloy, _Rost had simply never learned the word for it and took it as the way of things in the world, accepting it uncritically like he did so much else._

Like accepting being an outcast forever.

He should have told the entire tribe to go to hell for having the utter _gall_ to condemn him to death after he had avenged the killers of men, women and children. All because out of a sense of basic human decency, someone else had dragged him across the Nora border.

But he sturdily and stolidly accepted being told the best compromise possible was to be a permanent exile within his own land.

Aloy stopped, sighed, and looked up at the late-afternoon sky. She couldn’t go to the Lodge in her current mood, fuming like Thunder’s Drum over the way she and Rost had been treated by the other Nora.

Trying to calm herself, she took in the cloudless sky, the clear, crisp air (unlike, say, that _uniquely_ fragrant aura of metal striking metal along with wood ash and smoke in Free Heap or Pitchcliff), and found a log to sit down on, unconcernedly ignoring gazes from passers-by as she deliberately breathed in and out, letting her heartbeat slow down as she did so.

And so it happened that she wasn’t as startled as she should have been when a passerby slowed, then hesitated and stopped to stand next to her. She asked, “Aloy? Is that your name?”

Aloy looked up and was about to speak when her jaw dropped as she took in the stranger’s face.

_Vala!_

It was all Aloy could do not to leap up, sweep up the other girl in an enthusiastic embrace, and pepper her with questions about how non-outcasts lived.

Instead, she just replied, proud that her voice remained firm, saying, “Yes. That’s my name. Who are you?”

Vala sat down next to Aloy and said, “I’m sorry I surprised you. I guess you weren’t expecting to be talked to by a lot of Nora.”

Aloy ruefully grinned. “You’re not wrong there. I’ve talked to… well, two people exactly, since entering this place. I was going to maybe see a trader, buy some last-minute stuff, then see the Matriarch’s Lodge for whatever that commotion is I can hear way off.”

Vala smiled. “Well, I’m Vala. My mother would talk about you at times, usually after she saw you practice the Brave trail, or take down a machine. She’d tell Varl and me you were one to watch out for at your Proving. I don’t know how she knew your name, but she once said something about knowing Rost many years ago.”

_So Teb was telling the truth and not just exaggerating to make me feel better. But how Sona knew Rost I’ve never been able to work out. Maybe I’ll learn this time around._

Without betraying any of her musings, Aloy smirked. “So who do you want to bet will win at the Proving? Obviously, I’m hoping to win, but…”

Vala laughed. “Well, _I’m_ hoping to win, too, of course. But whoever wins, it’ll be because they put in their hardest effort.”

“Thanks, Vala.”

Vala leaned in, gently bumping her shoulder against Aloy’s. “I’d love to keep talking, but I have a feeling we should probably show up in good time to the Lodge.”

Aloy stood up and extended her hand out to Vala, who grabbed Aloy’s hand to pull herself up. Aloy couldn’t deny the slight frisson that went up her spine at Vala’s touch, but shoved that aside for the time being. Vala, for her part, nodded approvingly. “You’ve got a strong grip, there.”

“You too.”

The two ambled on towards the cacophony when Aloy spotted Karst on the path. She bumped shoulders with Vala and muttered, “Give me a couple of moments. Need to trade.”

Vala smiled. “See you up there.”

Karst’s laconic greeting and banter with Aloy went much as she remembered from her dream-vision. But now that she thought back over more ominous events in that world, she had the troubled realization that she had never gone back to check to see if he had been one of the lucky ones after Helis’s goons had gotten through with the Sacred Lands.

In the end, after getting a Blast sling, Aloy hemmed and hawwed, then shook her head. “Nothing else I can spot here I could use. Take some shards for your trouble.”

Karst just had time to blurt, “But you already paid fo—” before Aloy dropped a fair number of the metal pieces in Karst’s open palm and took off, waving goodbye.

_She wouldn’t fail Karst this time. Or any of the Nora._

At the Lodge itself, things again played out much as she recalled: the frightened Carja Sun-priest, Irid, just managed to dodge the peltings of fruit before Erend stepped forth to calm the situation. As he talked, Aloy recalled Ersa, who she had only sadly met once, and who might still be saved if somehow – _somehow_ – she could tip off Erend about Dervahl in time.

While she ruminated, she spotted Olin out the corner of her eye. By now, she was relatively inured to the fact that she was living a second version of a life she’d dreamed about, but even so, seeing him brought up those first few days when all she knew was that she wanted to hurt Olin for what had happened to her and Rost.

But knowing, as she did now, that he had a family under Helis’s “protection” (meaning, as hostages to his good behavior) she couldn’t bring herself to resent him for bringing danger to the Nora, and to her and Rost specifically. He had simply been the instrument of much larger forces.

Letting the “annunciation of gratitude” go in one ear and out the other, she eased her way over to Olin to talk to him. He started as she tapped him on the shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry! Am I in the way, or…?”

“No. I just – that triangular thing by your ear; I haven’t seen anyone else here wear it. Is it a mark of your tribe?” inquired Aloy.

Olin chuckled. “Well, I _am_ Oseram, but no, it’s not a thing we all wear. Just those of us who delve into ruins might find something like it, and wear it as a trinket.”

Aloy frowned, trying to play-act an ignorant Nora. “Does it _do_ anything? If it’s from the Metal World, maybe I shouldn’t…” She made as if to back up, appearing wary of the technologically advanced device.

“Oh!” Olin’s eyebrows went up. “I’d forgotten – sorry, it’s probably because I’m a delver, like many other Oseram. We don’t shun the Metal World like you Nora d— _AH_!” Olin put his hand to his ear and winced.

Aloy, putting on a false expression of concerned well-meaning ignorance, said, “Are those things painful? Are you all right? Maybe the Matriarchs were right when they said we shouldn’t poke around in ruins.”

In reality, she knew, with absolute tranquil fury, that HADES had just made the comparison between her and Elisabet Sobeck and come back with SYSTEM THREAT DETECTED.

Olin babbled, “Oh, yes! I’m – I’m fine, these things… we call them Focuses, they malfunction sometimes. I – I should go.”

He took off in a hurry just as Erend bounced down from the wooden stage calling out, “Hey, Olin, what ar—”

He heaved his hands in the air, then let them fall back with a slap against his metal armor. “Well, that was sudden. Guess maybe the mountain air didn’t agree with him.”

Erend did a double-take as he looked Aloy over and said, “Well, hey. My name’s Erend. You’re…?”

“Aloy.” She grinned. _He could be irrepressible when he was in a good mood_. And why not? As far as he was concerned, she was a pretty girl getting her first look at a relatively sophisticated outlander with one foot in the Oseram, and another in the Carja, being as he was Ersa’s brother and so had the ear of the Sun-King himself as his sister’s deputy.

Not caring to let Erend know he was way out of his league chatting her up, she just asked, “Where did he get that metal piece on his ear?”

Erend shrugged. “Who knows? He’s a delver – uh, that means he digs for artifacts – and a scout. Good type to have on any expedition. But he could’ve gotten that thing anywhere. Did notice him wearing it a lot in Meridian recently, but I guess when you know some Carja nobles, you gotta wear something to stand out.”

Remembering the rough timeline of events from Olin’s journal, Aloy knew Erend’s description of events fitted.

Changing the subject, Aloy nodded back at the stage, where Irid still stood, and said, “You really calmed things down there. You do that kind of speechmaking a lot?”

Erend grinned. “Can’t say I make a habit of it, but I knew I had to do something. Many of your people, like mine, are still mad about the Red Raids. Ten years of the stinking kestrels grabbing up anyone they could lay their hands on…” He shook his head in somber recollection.

Aloy thought she spotted her chance to warn him. “Well, if you think we Nora have a long memory when it comes to what the Carja did to us, what about your own people? We have a rule that anyone who leaves the Sacred Land without permission becomes an outcast, but I bet the Oseram don’t. What’s to stop someone from thinking the new ‘Sun-King’ is going to be just like the old one, and deciding to do something about it?”

“Wow, you have an active imagination!” scoffed Erend. “Nah. I mean, the only guy I could think of who would even _want_ to settle that kind of score, he’s dropped off the face of the Earth.”

“But are you _sure?_ ” Aloy prodded.

A frown crossed Erend’s features. “You know, you’re makin’ me wonder now. Might send a messenger back to Meridian, maybe.”

_Please, in the name of All-Mother, the Sun, the Blue Light, the Old Ones’ Gods, do it, Erend! Get Avad to send an expedition to find Ersa if she took off already!_

Aloy had to avoid letting her desperation show, lest she start Erend wondering if she was something she was not and tipping off Olin (and by extension, Helis). Forcing calm on herself and trying to wear the best vapid expression she could muster (the closest she could recall was the look of a child’s excitement at seeing a fire-breather in Meridian), she said, “So… that armor. How good is it?”

And from that point on, it was easy enough to let Erend ramble, refreshing herself on all the conversational points she needed (though not having her Focus did deprive her of the word-context-sensitive auxiliary storage for the conversation she was having).

What shone through it all was how strong Erend’s devotion was to the cause he now served – that of preserving the strength and endurance of Avad’s reign, and helping his sister do that as best as he knew how (which, Aloy knew, was actually well-done by Erend in his own right after Ersa died).

Aloy _did_ giggle out loud when Erend proceeded to rather clumsily try some ‘pick-up lines’, as some Carja people called them. She just said, “Thanks for the invitation to Meridian. Maybe one day, when the rules are looser here.”

 _As if._ Lansra would demand adherence to tradition in blind defiance of all around her.

Erend replied with an easy smile, “Any time. Just ask for me when you get there.”

Aloy nodded. “One day, perhaps. But I should get to the Blessing, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course, yeah. Don’t let me keep you. Those Matriarchs look pretty scary for a bunch of old ladies,” remarked Erend.

Aloy had to bite her lip to keep from letting out an audible chuckle as she turned to follow the crowd now filtering out to the courtyard where several light lanterns sat.

 _Who should I say my blessing to this time?_ wondered Aloy.


	5. Chapter 5

Aloy, staring at the prayer lantern for several moments, listening to the other would-be Braves say their invocations out loud, tried to work out what she would say.

In the end, it was almost too obvious what she _did_ need to say; she just hadn’t wanted to sound too presumptuous or pompous.

She muttered her particular invocation under her breath so Bast and Vala couldn’t hear (she _especially_ didn’t want that jerk Bast picking up what she was about to say), and it ran:

“ _To Rost, Elisabet and GAIA. Rost, for all you did to help me be who I am today. Elisabet, for giving us the world we live in. And GAIA, for your faith in Elisabet and in me. I’ll try not to let any of you down._ ”

As the sense of _rightness_ settled upon Aloy, she carefully lit the lantern, then gingerly held its sides as she rose to her feet amid Teersa’s call to All-Mother. After the gentlest of nudges, the lantern rose up into the sky amid the dozens of others around it. She stared raptly, watching as the multitude of lanterns, carried aloft on a gentle breeze, slowly floated away from the grouping of Nora and outlanders.

Slowly, the crowd people began filtering away. Aloy, hanging back, noticed Irid was still standing there, gazing up at the now-distant lanterns floating in the sky. On impulse, she went to go talk to him.

“Uh, hello. You’re a Sun-Priest, right?”

Irid, a bit startled out of his reverie, looked left and right before answering, as though he expected another round of fruit to pelt him from the shadows. “Ah, yes, I am. A Sun-Priest, that is. I am the Reverent Irid.”

“I’m Aloy.” She gave him a small smile. “I’m not here to attack you; I just wanted to know what you thought of what you’ve seen of us Nora.”

“To tell the truth, I hadn’t expected to be so fortunate as to arrive on one of your most momentous occasions. It was quite a moving sight. And I cannot help but admire this… Mother’s Heart of yours, beautifully built with much less to hand than we had in constructing Meridian.”

Aloy couldn’t help but notice for all Irid’s willingness to talk, he still rather seemed to hide behind his Sun-Priest face garb. Then again, any Carja with a conscience _ought_ to be nervous around the Nora.

She tilted her head, eyeing him quizzically. “So you believe in what the… Sun-King?” At Irid’s nod, she continued, “you believe in what he wants for the Carja and the Nora?”

“I do, yes. As do many of my fellow Sun-Priests who witnessed the last Sun-King’s depredations even unto his own son.” Irid shook his head mournfully. “I was only too honored to be asked to carry a message which, I hope, takes us some small way to final reconciliation for the Red Raids.”

 _And there was another thing,_ Aloy mused. _Why had Rost not thought to tell her about those? Then again, he had more of a reason than with the Derangement. Why scare an outcast child who lived well within the Embrace, with tales of Carja soldiers who could never reach her?_

Having seen Avad for herself – albeit in a dream-vision – Aloy knew the truth of Irid’s words. But she couldn’t help but seize on one of the things he’d said. “You said ‘many’? Does that mean not all of you—”

Irid pursed his lips. “There are those scoundrels who mock the faith and the Radiant Line of Sun-Kings who held the sun’s favor. They live in Shadow far to the east at Sunfall, where they fled with the Kestrels and Prince Itamen, hoping to hold forth a figurehead of a boy-king as the true heir to the mad Sun-King. But His Luminance Avad is too strong and wise to let that sort of usurpation happen, and inasmuch as he represents the sun, the glory of the Carja is the sun's glory, reflected. We Sun-Priests are but glimmers of its great light.”

Aloy couldn’t resist pulling the man’s leg. “You’ve been saying ‘Sun-King’. So what if there was a Sun- _Queen_?”

Irid stared, gobsmacked. “A… Sun-Queen? Well, there _have_ been wives and consorts of the Sun-King, but the Sun is as a man, that is for certain, and chooses his heirs thus.”

“It’s… a big ball in the sky. Pretty sure I’ve never seen anything dangling from it,” retorted Aloy. “And you’ve probably noticed women tend to run things around here.”

Irid harrumphed and looked quite discomfited. “I suppose I should give that some thought. After all, you worship an ‘All-Mother’, who must certainly be a woman. And your leaders _are_ indeed women, as well.” Irid’s face became thoughtful. “You remind me somewhat of one of my fellows, the Mournful Namman, who believes the Sun shines upon all the tribes equally. He also challenges us to think about what our faith in the Sun and Shadow mean, especially after the mad Sun-King damaged us so, and used our very faith to wield unchecked power so freely.”

Aloy noted, “Sounds to me like Sun-Kings don’t always make the best decisions.” She could spot Irid’s very slight wince at that, even though she knew official Carja dogma held that, alongside the Sun-King being able to make any and all decisions about the Sundom, Avad being able to kill Jiran was proof that Jiran had lost the Sun’s favor. Aloy added, “This has been an interesting discussion, but I hope I didn’t offend you.”

Irid shook his head. “Our talk was illuminating. It is easy to fall into old patterns if you never look for new ways, new ideas – and being here is giving me enough of those. But I should retire for the night and speak to your Matriarchs before I go.”

Aloy took that as an implied good-bye, as Irid was flicking brief glances towards Erend and Olin, probably eager to get back to safer company.

“Have a safe trip back to Meridian,” Aloy said as she left Irid.

Aloy hadn’t walked ten steps before she nearly bumped into Teersa, who reached out to steady her. “My apologies, child! I hadn’t quite expected such a sudden meeting.” Teersa grew more solemn. “I hope the Blessing wasn’t too… difficult.”

In her dream, Aloy had vented her vitriol at her casting-out at Teersa [1], who had had the grace to explain, as best as she could given it involved Rost’s own unique circumstances, that it hadn’t been as simple as Lansra getting her way.

This time, she simply said, “It wasn’t… terrible. I got to say my thanks in my own way to Rost and whoever my mother might be.”

“I _am_ pleased to hear you say that. With a tribe so bound in what motherhood means, a child who hasn’t a mother is… not always well-treated.” Teersa had the good grace to grimace slightly at that last.

“I suppose not, considering when I was younger I was a target for at least one boy’s stones.” Aloy’s voice dropped to a sharp hiss. “Good thing he didn’t take my eye out!”

_Guess that vitriol hasn’t entirely gone away._

Before Teersa could answer, Aloy drove on. “I am here to get answers, Teersa. And when I win the Proving, I _will_ demand them,” Aloy declared, heedless of the fact that her hands, at her sides, had clenched into fists.

Teersa looked a bit sad and weary. “I would expect nothing less, Aloy.”

Not really wanting to get bogged down in a long conversation which she already knew, at this stage, just raised more questions than answers she had, in some cases, not fully understood until much later, she shifted to another subject.

“One thing, if you don’t mind, Teersa. I was talking to the Oseram men and that Sun-Priest, Irid. I learned about the divisions within the Carja tribe – their Sun Carja, who the Sun-King leads, and the Shadow Carja, led by some sort of pretender—”

Teersa nodded. “Some of this was explained to us when we accepted the Sun-King’s offer of an envoy.”

“Then can you see that the ‘Shadow Carja’ might want to attack? If only to try and start another war?”

Teersa leaned back. “Who would even countenance such a thing?! And in any case, I don’t see how it is possible; our Braves guard all entrances into the Embrace.”

“Blame it on being an outcast,” Aloy said, a sardonic tone creeping into her voice. “When you’re outside pretty much _any_ society, you get to wondering what people might do to each other, given the chance for a high enough reward. Learning about the Red Raids only makes it even clearer to me that someone might try and attack during the Proving, if only to crow about it to someone in charge back home.”

Teersa frowned. “I suppose you have reason to be suspicious of others, if only because of the way the tribe treated you after we put you with Rost to be raised by him. But, please, blame us, the Matriarchs, if you must – not the tribe.”

“The tribe who acts on the orders of the Matriarchs,” pointed out Aloy. She sighed, trying to let out her nervous energy as she willed her fists to unclench. “I’m sorry; that _was_ harsh. It’s just… very difficult, knowing I am close to getting answers.” _And trying to protect my tribe, too._

Teersa nodded. “I hope to give you those answers soon; I will be praying for your success tomorrow. And I will trust that nothing untoward will happen, but I may speak to Sona later tonight.”

Aloy sensed that was about the best she was going to get. Pushing Teersa any harder would only make her end up with more questions than answers, given that Aloy hadn’t become the “Anointed” of All-Mother yet. And it was a fairly short step from wondering if Aloy was of the All-Mother to wondering if she really was of the Metal Devil instead, as Lansra apparently always preached. The same words, couched in warning, could easily be taken as a threat instead.

Aloy gave Teersa a small bow and said, “Thank you for giving me your time after the Blessing. I know you have a lot to do still.”

Teersa smiled. “You are owed that much, at least, from me. See me again after the Proving and ask of the High Matriarchs your boon. All will be told at that time.”

“Good night, then,” said Aloy as she turned to leave.

Hopefully Vala would take her warnings a bit more to heart. And it was time to get her Focus back from Teb.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] Talking to Teersa after the Blessing is optional, but if you choose to do so, you get a Fist/Heart/Brain Flashpoint. Fist lets Aloy give it with both barrels to Teersa. (You can watch it here: https://youtu.be/5ohp_zstSi0 - not my playthrough, FYI)


	6. Chapter 6

On the way to Teb’s stall, Aloy looked up at the sky. By now, the evening was falling to dusk, and soon full night would come. The Proving would take place not long after first dawn and breakfast, and from what she could tell it would take her around an hour to sneak back to the cabin, get her supplies, then head back: that might be an absence long enough to be remarked upon.

While on general principle Aloy didn’t much care about what other Nora tribespeople thought, people seeing her leave Mother’s Heart and then come back might start tongues wagging about cheating at the Proving. Bad enough Bast was willing to accuse her just because she took the old Brave trail.

 _Guess I’ll have to whip up what I can with what’s around here_.

Aloy went on quite the fishing expedition around Mother’s Heart, ransacking every supply-hoard she could find. In doing so she found a quantity of blaze, wire, sparkers, and other odds and ends. If she judged things right, she had enough to improvise some Proximity Bombs and Blast Bombs. _And_ , now that she recalled, the Grazers which went by the Proving starting grounds every year would have blaze, as well.

Aloy smirked. She just might be able to get the drop on Helis after all.

“Aloy! You seem satisfied,” Teb’s voice announced seemingly out of nowhere, startling Aloy out of her reverie. Her feet had, apparently, carried her to his stall of their own accord while she was ruminating over her now rather full supply sack.

“Oh! Hi, Teb. I was just happy I got through the Blessing – and that I didn’t get into any fights.” Aloy’s smirk became an unforced grin at seeing Teb smiling at her.

“It was a beautiful ceremony. Then again, it always is, every year,” remarked Teb.

“I’ll give it that. Anyway, my Focus, if you don’t mind?”

“Of course; one moment,” said Teb as he reached into his bag of leathers. While he dug around in the bag, Aloy quickly slipped some shards into another bag nearby her. Shortly after, Teb stood, producing her Focus to drop into her outstretched hand.

Aloy would’ve had to be pressed hard on the matter, but if so, she _would_ have admitted to some relief at seeing the familiar purple lines flow out briefly across her vision as her Focus snapped to the side of her ear.

“Thanks again, Teb. For keeping my Focus and making this outfit for me,” Aloy said as she made to head to the lodge for those would-be Braves due to run the Proving.

“Of course, Aloy. Good luck tomorrow.” Teb turned and began packing up his things.

Aloy, for her part, strode off to find an out-of-the-way place to begin crafting her supplies. _It was time_ , she decided, _to get ready for war._

* * *

Aloy, her outfit now improved with a modification to resist arrow attacks, and her supply sack now clanking with improvised bombs ready to use the next day and rattling with as many arrows as she could craft, walked up the stairs to the lodge, only to be stopped by Resh.

“Motherless ch—”

“ _Shut up_ ,” spat Aloy. “You should be guarding latrines, with the way you stink of your small-minded intolerance.” The Old Ones had a colorful word for people like Resh, and she ground out, “ _Asshole._ ”

And so saying, she shoved her way past the threshold and slammed the door behind her.

Unfortunately, that got Bast’s (and everyone else’s) attention, and he sneeringly called out, “Look, it’s the motherless outcast come to pretend she’s one of us.”

Aloy strode up to Bast and sneered. “Who’re _you_?”

“The one who gave you that scar when I hit you with my rock, that’s what! Such a cherished memory.” Bast crossed his arms and smirked.

Vala leaned in and scowled. “Bast, you’re being a real lard. Stop.” To Aloy, she smiled and said, “C’mon, let’s get away from this loudmouth.”

“Awww, you two are _fwends_ now?” simpered Bast. “Look at you, even dressing alike! Not that it would fool a _real_ Nora.”

“Let’s cut the crap, Bast. I _will_ win the Proving, and all your boasting isn’t going to change the fact that you’re a little brat in a man’s body. Besides, that lovely story you tell about the rock? I bet you leave out the part where I actually knocked the second rock out of your hand.” Aloy rolled her eyes at him and turned away to join Vala by her bed.

Bast called, “W-whatever, pretender! It’s time for Bast to get some sleep!”

At her bed (which, strangely, was the only single bed in the lodge), she sat down and asked of Vala, “Does he really talk about himself like that?”

Vala grimaced. “Sometimes. Usually when he thinks he was so clever taking down a Scrapper.”

Having fought Thunderjaws in her dream-world, and then the fearsome Daemonic Fireclaws, Aloy could only snicker. She carefully set her supply sack behind the head of the bed. Vala, noticing how it clanked a bit heavily, frowned. “Are you running the Proving, or fighting a war? You don’t need half of that to beat the Grazers they run past us.”

“I’ll be honest, Vala. The Carja make me nervous. I was talking to those Oseram men who came with the Sun-Priest, and they told me about this split in the Carja. See, the Sun-Priest is from the real Carja, those who want peace, but there’s a bunch of them way in the west who still believe in what the old Sun-King wanted, Red Raids and all.”

Vala’s breath hitched. Her voice dropping to a sharp whisper, she leaned in, saying, “There are _still_ those butchers of the Nora out there?!”

Aloy nodded. “It’s true. I asked Teersa and she said the Sun-Priest explained it to her. So if we’ve got our first big visit from _anyone_ in I don’t even know how long, what’s to stop the fake Carja from showing up here, too? Uninvited, I might add.”

Vala’s eyes went wide. “That’s… outlanders are forbidden by the Matriarchs unless invited! How would they get past our Braves?”

Aloy shook her head. “I wouldn’t know. I’ve only ever been inside the Embrace except once when Rost took me to kill the Sawtooth causing problems—”

“That was you?!” Vala’s voice had gone up an octave. “My mother Sona said it looked like the cleanest kill she’d seen since Varl took down a Lancehorn up north! And she doesn’t hand out praise like that easily.” Vala’s look at Aloy turned appraising.

Aloy found herself blushing. “Look, it was planning and a bit of luck on my part. I worked out where it walked and then laid some tripwires, and got my spear in just the right place, as it turned out.”

“Still, good work, Aloy.” Vala extended her hand, and Aloy tentatively reached out, upon which Vala took her arm and clasped it. Aloy reciprocated, and Vala grinned. “And you’re a fast learner, I see.”

“I try,” Aloy replied with a chuckle.

Vala mused, “You know, if you wanted to be a fighter after the Proving, my mother Sona is the War-Chief. My brother, Varl, is one of her fighters, and I’m planning to join as well, after my Proving. Do you want me to take you to talk to her?”

Aloy made a show of considering. “Maybe. Let me get past the Proving first. And about this,” she gestured at her bag, “if I’m wrong, I’m wrong and all it’ll do is slow me down in the race. But if I’m right – well, better to be prepared.”

Vala nodded. “Good point. Might craft some extra arrows, then. Just in case.”

The two women fell into a companiable silence as they began making extra Hunter arrows for Vala’s bow. Aloy’s hands soon fell into an easy rhythm, seamlessly working in tandem with Vala and before long, Vala was as fully kitted-out as she was prepared to be. She went to set her supply sack and arrow quiver underneath her bed, then sat down on Aloy’s bed to Aloy’s right.

She extended her left hand, to which Aloy automatically extended her right hand. Vala linked her fingers with Aloy’s, and she whispered, “I hope I’m not being too… rushed doing this, but… I – I like you, and I wanted to say, after the Proving…?”

Aloy turned to look at Vala, taking in the steady gaze from the other woman’s dark brown eyes. Her heart racing, she couldn’t help but remember how Vanasha and Petra Forgewoman had been quite… open with her about their attraction. And Ikrie had soon found an easy companionship with Aloy, though she hadn’t wanted to tread further out of respect for Ikrie’s lost friendship with Mailen – or had it been as one-sided as Petra’s clear interest in Aloy?

Aloy gave Vala a tentative smile and gently squeezed Vala’s hand in reciprocation. “I’d… like to see where that could go between you and me, but… yeah, after the Proving. Is that okay? I’m not rejecting you flat-out, I just – I’ve never really been so close to anyone like we are now.”

Vala dropped her head into her free palm and muttered, “All-Mother, I am an _idiot_.” To Aloy, she said, “I’m so sorry. I forgot you’ve never had chances like this. Please, forgive me.”

Aloy chuckled and let go of Vala’s hand. “It’s okay. Like I said, I’m not saying no, I’m just saying I want to wait until my mind is off the Proving, and if nothing else, I would be happy to be your friend.”

Vala let out a relieved laugh and smiled. “Okay, then. Have a good night. And may the best woman win. Bast’ll be too busy congratulating himself on the way to notice we’re ahead.”

That caused Aloy to let out an undignified snort as Vala changed beds. “Good night to you as well, Vala.”

So saying, Aloy composed herself for sleep, and as she stared up at the ceiling of the bed-house, what was almost a prayer escaped her lips in a low whisper.

“Whatever happens tomorrow, I am _not_ letting anyone die.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those of you wondering, I _am_ bringing in a little bit of Aloy/Vala, but I'm not aiming for any main ships at present. Aloy's hardly at the point where she can even think about settling down, but I always thought the dynamic between Aloy and Vala in the game seemed to point the way to them becoming good friends, at the very least.


	7. Chapter 7

Aloy woke, snapping immediately into sharp awareness. Upon keying on her Focus, she saw that the date and time of the Proving, by the Old Ones' reckoning, followed the previous day, just as it had in her dream-vision when she had checked that time. _As if I needed any more proof_ , Aloy noted sardonically.

As she knew there would be some time before the other Proving candidates woke up, Aloy thought about what her Focus could _really_ do. Sylens had implied that they were, in some ways, very powerful while in other ways very weak. Of course, those measurements were by the Old Ones’ standards. By Nora standards, anyone with a Focus was practically a king or queen: Aloy owed half her success at hunting and tracking to being able to use her Focus when needed, though Rost had always insisted she try not to use it, lest her skills fall into disuse.

One thing she _had_ learned was that Focuses could somehow “talk” to each other, and could “talk” to a hijacked Tallneck network. So, if she followed that reasoning along, there had to be some feature of her Focus that actively sought out such signals (which was how she’d spotted Tallnecks and Cauldrons alike, and which had guided her to Olin in the first place). Therefore, if _her_ Focus also put out such a signal, then it would be easier for the Eclipse, or Sylens, to find it.

Aloy looked around the bed-house, satisfied no-one else was awake. She keyed on her Focus’s – for lack of a better phrase, “home area”, or what it termed MAIN MENU.

It was a calculated risk she took: Rost had never been totally comfortable with the way her hands moved in the air, manipulating things only she could see when she used her Focus. A Nora seeing her do the same might raise a ruckus the High Matriarchs would need to sort out.

Aloy had learned early on not to mess around with the section titled STATUS AND SETTINGS MODIFICATIONS. One time, she had accidentally changed the colors and only by sheer luck of pressing RESTORE DEFAULTS had the comforting generally purple shades come back.

So on this occasion, she took a deep breath, then extended her finger to “tap” that option.

“Hmm,” Aloy mused. “Now where would it be if I wanted to find out how my Focus talks to others?”

Aloy carefully considered option after option, then settled on COMMUNICATIONS. She knew it was a fancy Carja word for “talking”; apparently it came directly from the Old Ones.

She saw LOCAL BLUETOOTH PAIRING: ENABLED

Aloy frowned. “Is that like Bluegleam?”

She looked around in her field of vision and noticed a circled question mark in the lower right-hand corner. She tapped it, and a square popped up:

_Help: Local Bluetooth Pairing._

_When enabled, your FARO Focus will automatically seek out and link up with other FARO Focuses in the vicinity, if they are also capable of doing so. This will easily allow users to share messages, video, and even take advantage of distributed computing power if desired._

Aloy pursed her lips. So if what she was reading – and she didn’t quite understand all of it – was what she thought it was, then this was how her Focus had ‘seen’ Olin’s Focus. But why hadn’t _he_ acted like his Focus ‘saw’ hers, while still sending what he saw to his masters in the Eclipse?

She looked for a way to dismiss the square help window, and found that the X in the upper right corner dismissed it. “Okay, you’re off now.” She tapped the ENABLED option, and it switched to DISABLED.

The next step now was to figure out how to keep her Focus off Sylens’s Tallneck network. From what she knew, he hadn’t begun tapping in until Helis’s directive went out, and probably not even until enough Eclipse were in the area near her to “catch” the one Focus that stood out from the rest.

One other possible option made sense, if only by elimination: WORLD COMNET CONNECTIVITY: ENABLED

The help option for that read:

_Help: World Comnet Connectivity_

_When enabled, your FARO Focus is capable of initiating or receiving a call to or from anyone in the world, seamlessly utilizing local and long-distance radio and fiber-optic communication networks for audio, visual, or audiovisual interaction. Disabling this is strongly discouraged, but may be recommended in certain science and/or research environments, and/or when radio communications would interfere with machinery in the vicinity._

Well, there wasn’t much of a “communication network” anymore, but the way Tallnecks worked, she supposed they were the closest thing to what the Old Ones had – and Sylens had indeed rigged up a Tallneck for the Eclipse; he’d admitted as such.

She tapped DISABLED on that one too after closing the Help square.

With that, Aloy shut down her Focus’s menus and tapped it once to remove the purple lines from her vision. Later, she knew she might need to restore those options (especially when setting up her Override device), but for now, Sylens could just keep his snoopy nose out of things.

She quickly looked around the bed-house again: no-one had stirred. Letting out a sigh of relief, she turned her thoughts to how she would handle things later that day.

* * *

After the other Proving candidates began waking, Aloy got up as well. Her morning ritual was brief: she got into her modified Nora outfit, slung her supply pack behind her back so the bag-handle went across from her left shoulder to right hip, then slung her arrow and spear on her back as well.

Breakfast was outside, Aloy sitting next to Vala in the early morning sun at one of the long tables nearby the bed-house. Although neither brought up what they’d discussed last night, Aloy and Vala did share a secret smile as they stood up when called by an older Brave, and stayed together as they walked along the snow-encrusted ground, Vala pointing out the creations of past Nora Braves along the way (such as the shrine Aloy remembered pointing out to Vala in her dream).

Bast, as usual, was his arrogant self as he pushed past Aloy and Vala on the mountain climb, to which the two women just shared an eye-roll.

After cresting the mountain top, Aloy bit her lip briefly. _Now it begins_ , she thought.

She tuned out whatever Resh was saying, waiting for the thundering of the Grazers’ hoofbeats as they ran across the snowy landscape leading to the Brave trail. Soon enough, a herd of yellow-eyed Grazers came into view, and Aloy readied her bow and arrow: no need to waste any blast-bombs. One good shot at the eye, and— _THWIP!_

Aloy’s arrow landed true, felling a Grazer. She rushed up to it, heedless of other Grazers falling nearby, and quickly searched it for the trophy she needed to carry with her. Unlike the previous time, she didn’t waste time showing it off to get sabotaged by Bast. She quickly scooped up the extra blaze containers, and on the way to the Brave trail, she found another felled Grazer with blaze still in the racks. She guessed the other person searching it had been too hasty, grabbing only the trophy.

Supply-sack now bulging a bit more, Aloy took off at a hard run, her feet barely touching the ground as she raced against time. Once again, she was a bit behind – this time because of her supply-gathering, so she made a split-second decision even as the older warrior was telling her not to bother.

Off towards the old trail she ran, her footfall on the second pole pushing it forward for her to leap straight ahead, firmly gripping the rock and pulling herself up to her feet.

With every step, she grew closer to the moment of truth: would she get her boon? And could she win the battle to come?

Helis’s dead-eyed gaze swam before her as her feet carried her unerringly across the old trail, and she growled at the thought of that arrogant, dangerous man laying waste to the Nora lands.

All too soon, she was at the slip-rope to the clearing, and as soon as she dared she let go, her knees bending to take the impact even as she pulled her trophy out of her bag, clapping it down on the altar a few seconds before Vala’s joined her in front of the older woman who would announce the results.

_Yes!_

Bast, to perhaps no-one’s surprise, whined about cheating, to which Aloy just snorted. She had more important things to do.

Like check if anyone was around with her Focus. It was a calculated risk, because she didn’t know if an active Focus could still be “called” by others in the area, which would tip off the Eclipse to her. But her instinct proved true: she could spot several purple figures lurking behind the hill leading up to the clearing.

Quickly disengaging her Focus again, she waited for the woman (whose name she had unfortunately never learned) to finish announcing Aloy’s victory, after which she caught just the faintest whistling sound in the air.

Aloy leapt forward, yelling, “Watch out, everybody!”

She crashed into the woman, sending them both flying across the snow, and luckily, away from the flurry of arrows that would have struck her down. Shock registered on the woman’s face; Aloy barked, “Hurry! Get off this hill and warn the others!”

She crawled up behind a rock and began checking for survivors: luckily, all the new Braves, startled at Aloy’s warning, had scattered as soon as they saw what she had somehow sensed. Vala slipped up next to Aloy, her eyes wide. “You were right! I don’t know how you guessed it!”

“Sometimes expecting the worst of people is not a bad way to go. But c’mon, we’ve got to take them down!” Aloy indicated with her jaw: “I’m gonna go over to the right, slip up onto that higher level and sneak up on ‘em. Keep your arrows flying!”

With that, Aloy rushed off, dodging arrows left and right, and made her way to the ledge, pulling herself up and under the convenient nook made by the arm of the Metal Devil. From there, just through the grass, she spotted several Eclipse men firing their arrows. She, in turn, nocked two arrows at a time on her bow, aiming each true to their heads, dropping them down like sacks of dirt if Vala's or the others' arrows didn't get them first.

Once there was a lull in the battle, Aloy ran out, quickly ransacking each man for what she could find, and checking each for a Focus. Then, quickly, she heaved herself up one more level and set out her Proximity bombs, hurriedly burying them under the snow before rushing back to cover under the Metal Devil’s nook.

The next group of Eclipse didn’t know what hit them.

They had all arrogantly rushed forward in a group, heedless of any counterattack.

The ground roared under them and the Earth shook as the bombs blew up in unison, felling every man at once.

Cheers rose up from the teenagers who had been hiding behind the rocks and grass; Aloy darted out and yelled, “Get off this hill! Now! There may be more coming!”

Vala turned to Bast and pointed. He didn’t hesitate to gesture to his fellows, pointing them to the rope which would let them slide down safely to the valley near Mother’s Watch. Bast was the last to go. Vala stayed, staring at Aloy beseechingly. Aloy, torn between wanting help and wanting Vala safe, gestured frantically to the rope.

Vala stood tall, nodded once, and called, “Be safe!” She then took off and disappeared down to safety.

 _Just in time_.

Aloy could see a heavyset man with a Deathbringer gun just cresting the hill, and she ducked back into some grass, then slipped down off the ledge and back behind a rock, far away from the Eclipse now arriving, some expostulating in shock at seeing their dead comrades.

The Deathbringer-man bellowed, “Find the red-hair! If she’s not up here, we clear the valley below!” She peeked out and saw he had made his way down to the ledge just above the clearing.

 _Not happening_ , vowed Aloy.

She called out, pretending her allies were still present, “Stay alert, everyone!”

“Who said that?!” someone called.

“Over there!”

Aloy leaped out, her Blast bomb readied, and launched it squarely at the man holding the Deathbringer gun before ducking back.

_BOOM!_

Yells of pain and fright rose up from the Eclipse, and Aloy peeked back out to see that her weapon had proved devastatingly effective. The man holding the gun lay insensate, and several other Eclipse were just staggering to their feet.

Aloy didn’t wait: she loosed three more bombs in rapid succession, pelting the Eclipse as the Earth shook from the explosions. In the silence that followed, she quickly got out the blaze containers she’d scooped up off the Grazers, and got a very terrible, very dangerous idea as she eyeballed them, and the several sparkers she had with her.

She decided to take her Focus off and slipped it in a secure pouch of her outfit. _Just in case_ , thought Aloy.

And just in time, for she could hear Helis’s voice as plain as day echoing over the clearing: “Find out what or who that is and stop it! The Buried Shadow demands we destroy this area, and that red-hair!”

Aloy set to work, because that _bastard_ was not going to get out of this alive.


	8. Chapter 8

Aloy would later shudder at all the different ways her plan could’ve gone wrong.

At the time, however, it was the only one she could come up with that had a half a chance of deceiving Helis into thinking he could easily win over her.

After setting her trap, she’d darted back out to the clearing to check the bodies of the Eclipse men, frantically hunting for a Focus. Luckily, the second guy she checked had one that looked like it still worked: an orange bar of light was clearly visible down the middle (Aloy’s was blue, so she knew she wouldn’t mix them up). She tucked it in a different pocket of her outfit, and then spotting Helis just cresting the hill, she stood dead-center, her arrow nocked and ready to fly.

As soon as enough of him was visible, Aloy let go of the bowstring, watching the Hunter arrow fly, only to be swatted aside by Helis. He stared for a moment, then let out a loud guffaw. “You expected _that_ to hurt me, red-hair?”

Aloy shot back, “The Buried Shadow you and your men spoke of is a false god! All-Mother is the true protector of all the Nora! I will defend this place against you and your heathen group!”

She didn’t seriously expect that to rile up Helis, but painting herself as an ignorant Nora teenager to the last would make anyone peeking through Helis’s Focus underestimate her – that being both HADES and Sylens.

And Helis simply arrogantly proclaimed, “And yet, _your_ tribespeople are the ones who ran off the top of this mountain when my men attacked.”

“So come and get me, then!”

Aloy let fly arrow after arrow, hoping the barrage, as weak as it was, would irritate Helis enough for him to come down to the clearing to fight in hand-to-hand combat, as he was currently lazily making his way down to the central clearing. Eventually, though…

“All right, _girl_ , this foolish bravery of yours ends _now_!” roared Helis as he moved with surprising dexterity for a man his size, easily leaping down the ledges towards the clearing.

Aloy’s heart hammered in her chest as she hurriedly angled herself towards the slide-rope which could take her to safety while launching more arrows. She wanted Helis to think she was launching a desperately heroic final stand, not taking advantage of his arrogance – and that balance was delicate. _So_ delicate. She needed to be standing in _just_ the right spot…

“Not so fast, red-hair!” bellowed Helis as he raced up to her and grabbed her by the throat.

Aloy gasped, wheezing for breath even as she calculated he was right about where she wanted him. Last time, he had walked almost the same way to hold her near the edge of the cliff, so if she proved too troublesome, he could just drop her over.

She kicked out, catching him just under the ribs to provoke him into moving forward. He winced slightly, then squeezed tighter. “Soon this will be all over, child. Turn your head to the sun,” said Helis almost negligently as he gripped a wicked-looking blade in his free hand.

“Big… of… you,” gasped Aloy. “Why… not… let… fight?” She glared at him, willing him to at least _believe_ she wasn’t afraid of him.

Helis let out a snort.

And took one more step into an apparently innocuous pile of snow.

The ground sloshed and something went _crack_ under his feet.

Aloy gave him a pained smirk.

A wisp quickly mushroomed into a billow of steam rushing up from the ground, and Helis dropped Aloy in shock as the heat seared his body and the steam blinded him for a moment. The snow began to glow a dull red, and he stared, his feet rooted to the ground at momentary incomprehension of what was happening.

“How do you like being outsmarted by a _Nora savage_ , asshole?!” Aloy screamed, her throat burning from the effort as she staggered away, racing against time to get as far back as possible.

Helis, if he had any response in mind, never got a chance to give it: in the next moment, the mixture of blaze, sparkers, and Proximity Bombs had enough air—

_BOOM!_

The blast slammed into Aloy with the force of ten of Erend’s backslaps, throwing her halfway across the snowy clearing, and stunning the Eclipse bringing up the rear with the cart of blaze which was intended to destroy the Nora’s Proving Grounds.

Aloy wheezed desperately as she tried to roll over onto her hands and knees, blinking as she saw double; the clouds in the sky shifted and wobbled in her vision. She was pretty sure that ringing in her left ear couldn’t be good, but more important was to take out those damn Eclipse—

A heavyset figure ran past her and launched itself up to the crest of the hill the Eclipse stragglers were coming over, and Aloy dimly heard pained yells and shouts as a one-sided fight went on.

Heavy footsteps thundered back to her a minute later, and Rost’s face swam double in her vision. His voice echoed: “Aloy _aloy **aloy**!_”

Aloy’s eyes fluttered shut as she lay in Rost’s arms, grinning as she savored victory.

* * *

Aloy’s eyes fluttered open, and the first thing she did after that was wince at the way her body _ached_ all over. Slowly, carefully, she swivelled her head this way and that, taking in her surroundings.

Candles everywhere. A bed. A suspiciously Metal-Worldish chamber.

Aloy had to laugh, heedless of the way her ribs protested.

 _Dream-history manages to somehow repeat itself_ , she marvelled. She was inside All-Mother mountain.

 _Again_.

Aloy slowly sat up, swinging her legs cautiously over the bed to set her feet on the floor. She was in her underclothes (also, again), so that meant with any luck, her Focus would be in a nearby room.

However, things _did_ change between dreams and reality, for someone bustled on in and called, “Oh, thank All-Mother, you’re awake!”

It was Teersa, smiling broadly.

Aloy blinked. Whe she answered, her voice rasped as she spoke. “Uh, hello. W-where am I? What happened? The last thing I remember, Rost…”

 _Rost!_ Panic took her as she tried to leap to her feet, swaying dangerously before Teersa managed to steady her, bracing Aloy’s weight with all her strength. “Easy, now! Rost is fine. He got you down from the mountain and handed you over to me a day ago.”

Aloy sagged in relief. “Thank you, Teersa. Just knowing he’s… out there, somewhere… it means a lot.” She realized she was still leaning against the older woman, and blushed as she tried to straighten up. “I shouldn’t be making you hold me up like that.”

Teersa chuckled. “This once, I think the cause is sufficient. But come, come! We must get you dressed and then accept your boon.” Her voice grew more solemn. “And we must discuss what happened at the Proving; am I correct in saying they seemed intent upon you and no-one else?”

Aloy nodded before Teersa turned, beckoning Aloy to follow her. “They called for the ‘red-hair’, which has to be me. Some of them were wearing Focuses. I grabbed one of theirs.”

“I’m not entirely sure what focusing has to do with it, but I can take you to your clothes and equipment. I’ll wait for you to get dressed, then I must ask you to come with me.”

Aloy’s heart raced. _Did this mean she might be able to get inside ELEUTHIA-9_?

In any case, Aloy, alone in a different room, quickly inventoried what she had and began preparing.

She had her Focus on the side of her head in moments, and her bow in front of her, waiting for the comforting glyphs BOW to come up, which they did a moment later. Satisfied that it apparently worked normally for the moment, she found the other Focus and set it aside as she donned Teb’s outfit which she’d modified, and gotten all her weapons, arrows and bombs squared away.

Then she picked up the orange-tinged Focus and hid it in her outfit before exiting to find where she could slip into a small vent and grab that first power cell. Sure enough, in the familiar candle-lit room off to the right from the main route to the Cradle door, she was able to carefully crouch and slip down the vent. Her knees and back protested, especially given their recent treatment, but she was able to snag the power cell, then head back to see Teersa, who was none the wiser, having waited further down the hallway.

As Aloy approached, Teersa held out a canteen of water, which she gratefully took and drank from while the older woman spoke.

“So, tell me, if you would, what did you _do_ up there? I gave Rost special permission to speak to me, as we needed to know as much as possible, since Vala and the others could only tell part of what you’d done to help them. He says he only saw a large, dangerous-looking man step into a snowdrift, drop you, and explode within it moments later.” Teersa shook her head. “That was extremely risky, Aloy. We would not have liked to lose you, especially when your instincts were so finely-honed about the killers ranging the Embrace before we drove them back. Even so, they _did_ inflict losses and their strange red machines seem to give off a corruption that blackens the ground, at least temporarily.”

Aloy let out a rueful chuckle as she handed the canteen back. She gently pressed her hand against her ribs as she felt them ache again. Her throat still hurt a bit, but her voice was less raspy after having had the water Teersa gave her. “I only had a few moments, so I just… came up with the only idea I was sure would work. I poured blaze in a kind of bowl in the snow—” Aloy gestured, indicating a bowl with her hands “—and then put enough snow on top of the blaze to thicken it, and then laid some sparkers on top and put more snow on that so it’d look like just a snowdrift you could step in. Also slipped in a Proximity Bomb or two. I had just enough for someone to put two feet in.”

Teersa’s eyes went wide. “Child, I do not know whether to commend your bravery or chastise your recklessness. I suppose in the end, defeating the apparent leader of this attack was worth it.”

 _More than you can possibly know, Teersa_.

“But come! Come! When Rost brought you to me, it seemed as if you might not survive. Jezza agreed to let you come in here and be near your mother, should the worst happen.”

And so saying, Teersa brought Aloy to a large door, and twisted exactly at the spot where the “handle” would open. A ponderous metallic whirring sound filled the air before the door unlatched and slid aside, revealing the inner sanctum of All-Mother, complete with the tentacle of a dead Metal Devil grasping futilely for the door.

 _And HADES would’ve set that thing alive if it could_ , thought Aloy with a shudder.

“It was here, Aloy, that we found you. We heard the cries of a baby at this altar, and that baby was you. To me, you were clearly a gift from All-Mother – for what reason I could not fathom, but to Lansra, at least, your presence was a portent of something much darker to come – the Metal Devil.”

Aloy rolled her eyes and tried to ignore her protesting knees.

Teersa went on to say, “Had you asked of us the answers you sought, I would have brought you here in any case. But since your boon was not yet used, you may ask it of me now. Choose wisely.” There was an intense gaze in Teersa’s eyes Aloy could not quite fathom, but she was hardly about to shrink back from the opportunity handed to her.

“High Matriarch Teersa, whatever crimes Rost committed in his past, I cannot imagine that they were so horrible as to dishonor the tribe. He is the strongest, most honorable man I know. I admit that I know no other Nora who I could compare him to, but nevertheless, I would not ask this unless I was absolutely sure of his character.” Aloy took a deep breath, then continued, “I ask that you make Rost, the man who raised me and cared for me and cared for all the Nora, no longer an outcast.”

Teersa’s only response was a broad smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to think hard about how to structure this, and I hope it paid off for you all as you read this chapter. As always, I welcome commentary, suggestions and critiques. Thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

Aloy stood before the door once more.

“Hold for Identiscan.”

She held her breath as the red light swept across her, the image of Elisabet appearing in the air beside her as it did so. Truth be told, Aloy still wasn’t sure how images of light worked like they did, but she wasn’t about to ask Sylens, and CYAN was still trapped by HEPHAESTUS at the moment.

Further thought was interrrupted when the voice continued. “Error. Alpha Registry Corrupted. Identity cannot be confirmed. Entry denied.”

Aloy knew that very probably might happen, and the reality of it still felt as if a blow from an Eclipse fighter had struck her. She sank to her knees as she realized she _would_ need to go to Sunfall after all. She could have kicked herself for not checking the Alpha Registry on her Focus! As her face fell, Teersa’s voice rang through the chamber.

“The Goddess spoke to you, Aloy! As if she knew you!”

“But it didn’t,” whispered Aloy.

“But you know _why_! Because of corruption! If you heal the corruption, will you not be seen clearly?”

 _That settles it._ Aloy rose to her feet and eyed Teersa steadily. “Teersa, to do this – to try and find how to fix this corruption – I may need to go beyond the Sacred Land. Is there a way I can do that? I will also need to try and find the origin of the killers who tried to hurt us at the Proving. And I think I know how to find out, but I need to do something you may think… unusual.”

Teersa mused, “A Seeker, perhaps?” She paced the large room as Aloy carefully brought out the other Focus.

Aloy keyed on her Focus options, but her finger hesitated over the ‘Bluetooth’ option. Focuses could link to each other both ways; what if the Eclipse Focus could send its signal outside of the mountain, and alert Sylens that Aloy was not all that she seemed?

Teersa was mumbling about Jezza and Lansra, so Aloy knew she really didn’t have a choice if she wanted to prove to Teersa she meant it about finding the killers: she tapped the air, enabling the local Focus connectivity, then cautiously held out the other Focus so hers could ‘break’ into it, somehow. Sylens had called it ‘hacking’, so perhaps the Old One who had had her Focus before had been interested in that sort of thing.

(Otherwise it made no sense how her Focus could brush past the guard-walls another Focus surely had to have to keep out nosy people like Sylens)

As before, the red circled X’s dotted the air in front of her. Impatiently, she shoved them aside, looking for the most recent communication datapoint: _there_!

Helis’s dead-eyed face stared out at her as he spoke aloud: “All commanders: halt excavations, and proceed at once to the mission point. Avoid all contact with Nora savages; but if you are seen, kill every witness. Target imaging attached. Do not fail.”

Standing next to a still of Elisabet Sobeck, Aloy’s recorded image and voice said, “Are those things painful? Are you all right?”

In the physical world, Aloy’s lips thinned. Sometimes the Nora had a point about the way the Old Ones had created things which were undeniably fascinating yet creepy. The thought of seeing images through others’ eyes, without them being able to do anything about it – as Olin had had to do for weeks – made her skin crawl.

Aloy quickly shut down her Focus’s connection to the other one, but still, she was too late: the orange-hued line on the other Focus faded out and it became a dead hunk of metal; at least it didn’t spark and explode in her hand this time. Aloy sighed and remembered to tap off the local connectivity again.

But Teersa was staring. “Aloy! Can you explain that? How your image appeared in the air? And that man! Was he the one who—?”

Aloy nodded. “Yes. He was the one who led the attack. Olin – that outsider who was here – that image of me came from his Focus. Uh, that’s what this triangular thing is called.”

“So you must find this Olin, yes?”

“Yes, I do. I have to find out how the killers saw me through him, and from him I can find out – maybe – who their other leaders are. That man you saw giving the orders can’t have been the only one. They could still be a threat to the Nora.”

Teersa shook her head. “That the world should be this strange! But come, Aloy. Please let me do all the talking.” She led Aloy back out of the Cradle antechamber, and continued on. “I will say that All-Mother requires you to seek out things from beyond the Sacred Lands and has entrusted you with this task. We will make you a Seeker to do this: while you are beyond the Sacred Lands you may take on any other task you deem worthy, such as finding out about these attackers.”

Aloy said, “Was Sona able to drive them off?”

“Thankfully, yes. As you suspected – by what means I still do not understand, groups of outlanders somehow sneaked past our defences and killed several Braves in each of our villages. But Sona’s remaining Braves were able to attack them, repelling them from the Embrace. Her success was not complete, however, as there are machines spreading a corruption through the land. She is contemplating a drive to the north, past Mother’s Crown, to vanquish the rest and hopefully also kill the machines as well.”

 _Olin probably told them about the Proving, which was how they knew to converge on the mountain,_ Aloy realized.

“Have Sona wait for me. I may be able to help,” Aloy urged. They were nearing the exit of All-Mother mountain.

Teersa nodded. “If you believe your Seeker task includes aiding others of the tribe, you may certainly do so.”

“Where is Rost?” wondered Aloy.

“Unfortunately, I do not know. We spoke only long enough for him to tell me what he had witnessed and done, and then he left again. He will not know that you have asked for his banishing to be lifted, but Jezza will concur with me in this, and we will tell all Nora this has happened.” Teersa nodded to the light from the outside. “Follow me, and as I said, let me do all the talking.”

So saying, Aloy and Teersa ventured outside to a chilly, overcast day. Jezza approached them and said, “We have enough to begin the Hymn of Atonement for the corruption brought across our land by the strange machines used by the attackers against our tribe.”

Teersa nodded. “We will begin soon. But there are two matters to discuss urgently. We must make Aloy a Seeker, to go beyond the Sacred Land: All-Mother spoke to her!”

Jezza’s eyes went wide and even Lansra, who had been shuffling forward and muttering, stopped and eyed Teersa, who went on. “It is true! Aloy has a task from the Goddess – to heal the corruption. She must be free to do as she needs to aid the tribe in this matter.”

“It does indeed seem so,” agreed Jezza. “The Goddess would not speak unless it was of grave importance.”

Lansra grunted, “Then let her Seek, and be done with it.”

Jezza and Teersa solemnly held Aloy’s arms as they began the ritual to mark Aloy as a Seeker, ending with “… may All-Mother protect you, and sustain you. Stay true.”

“What was the other matter?” wondered Jezza.

“Aloy asked of me her boon inside All-Mother: to take away Rost’s casting-out.”

Jezza eyed Aloy speculatively, while Lansra muttered again.

“This is no easy thing to ask, a boon for another instead of yourself,” Jezza finally remarked. “What Rost did for the tribe was a very unusual task, and his circumstances were… equally unusual. And he has clearly inspired such loyalty in you if you would ask this of us.” To Teersa, she nodded. “I concur. Rost always followed the law, even when he was outcast.”

They both looked at Lansra, who looked down for a moment, then gave a rough nod. “I agree, if only to let this one be gone Seeking as quickly as possible.”

 _I’ll take what I can get_ , thought Aloy sourly. Unanimity among the High Matriarchs was no small matter when it came to Rost, because a Death-Seeker wasn’t supposed to return to the tribe and yet he had.

Teersa called out across the Braves and mothers and children now congregating south of Mother’s Watch, “To all the Nora! Know that Rost, one-time member of the tribe, now outcast, is outcast no more! By Aloy’s boon, we have agreed to accept him as a Nora once more!”

She turned to Aloy and smiled. “Word will spread across the Nora lands. But you may inform anyone you see of this as well, and anyone who is unsure may come to the Matriarchs to find out the truth.”

Aloy heaved a sigh. “ _Thank_ you. It’s… honestly still unbelievable, that I’ll be able to see Rost again. He was going to – to leave.” Her voice had threatened to wobble at that last.

Jezza’s voice grew solemn. “We have delayed the Hymn long enough. Aloy, you are excused as your Seeker task prevails above all else. Go now, and may you find Rost on your travels along with the way to heal the corruption in our lands.”

“Of course,” replied Aloy.

With that, she began threading her way past the mourners, and went down the hill towards Mother’s Watch.

 _Hopefully_ , she thought, _Sona would be there this time instead of that jerk Resh_.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to give particular thanks to **Kitewalker** for looking over parts of this chapter and improving it immensely from my first draft. :)

The first person she ran across on the way to Mother’s Watch – and she would later wryly admit to herself she should have expected as much – was Vala.

“Aloy! You’re alive! And safe!” Vala was smiling widely, her arm extended.

Aloy reached out, taking Vala’s arm in the traditional Brave greeting. “Just have to go easy on my ribs for a while. And I’m glad _you’re_ okay as well. How were things down here?”

Vala released Aloy’s arm and leaned in close. “It was crazy. Those of us who were still capable – Sona got us all in a war party and we were out in the valley below Mother’s Watch defending it. There were more of those masked guys and a couple of Corrupted Striders with them. We were the lucky ones, though. Several injured Braves came back from the north and said a gang with a strange new machine beside a Corrupted _Sawtooth_ attacked them at the gate before being driven off.”

Aloy frowned, feigning lack of knowledge. “What’s this new machine? And when you say, ‘Corrupted’, you mean…?”

“They said it scrabbled around like a Shell-Walker, but it was much bigger and had a long tail that whips things around. And apparently it can drive other machines mad. When they’re corrupted, they dribble this reddish-black goo around themselves, and when you touch it, it burns. Also it seems to make the machines stronger and madder, somehow. The only good thing is Flame arrows seem to work better against them than usual.”

 _No news there,_ decided Aloy. _Matches up with what I know from that dream._

Vala tapped Aloy’s shoulder. “After we got back from defending Mother’s Watch, I overheard Rost and Teersa before he said he had to leave. I wasn’t supposed to be around, but when you’ve just been ordered by Sona to go get some supplies and the nearest supply crate happens to be behind a nearby hut… anyway, how much of it is true? The blaze trap and all that? Is that why you wanted me to leave?”

Aloy looked down at the ground and mumbled, “I didn’t want anyone else to get caught by the trap I wanted to set. I knew it was dangerous.”

“You know, Aloy, you _can_ ask for help if you need it. Not like there isn’t a whole tribe around you now,” pointed out Vala.

 _But you might’ve_ died _, Vala_.

Aloy sighed. “It’s not easy for me, when I’ve been an outcast all my life. I’ve only ever had Rost. I’m used to doing things on my own.” _And then being the Anointed One, with all_ that _caused for me._

“I can see why you have a bit of a hero complex,” Vala said, putting her hand on Aloy’s shoulder and squeezing gently. “But if you want help, I’ll do my best.”

“What’s history is history. I can’t change what those years did to me. But what I _can_ change – and I’ll try – is to let you in more.”

Vala gave Aloy a small, but contented smile. “What are friends for? Let me take you to Sona.”

Aloy held out the mark Teersa and Jezza had given her. “I’ll need to talk to her anyway; I’m a Seeker now. And Rost is no longer banished from the tribe. The High Matriarchs said so.”

“I’ve never seen a Seeker mark before!” marvelled Vala. “And your boon was for Rost? That’s impressive. Most tribespeople would’ve asked for something for themselves.”

Aloy grinned. “C’mon. Let’s go see Sona.”

* * *

As it happened, Aloy and Vala bumped into Teb inside Mother’s Watch proper, who greeted both of them with undisguised relief. Before they could get to talking, Sona called down from the wooden upper walkway along the fence, “Aloy! Vala! Up here, now.”

The two wasted no time climbing the ladder and standing at attention before Sona, who regarded each of them with an appraising look. “Vala, you behaved as a proper Brave should, defending your tribe and your land. Good work.”

Vala nodded and smiled.

Sona took a deep breath, then said, “Aloy, Teersa came to see me late the night before the Proving. She was hesitant to ask it of me, but requested that I post additional guards at all the gateways to the Sacred Lands, as well as outside Mother’s Watch. I shudder to think of what might have happened had she not had that foresight. Yet I suspect the suggestion came from you and not her.”

Aloy nodded. “Yes, War-Chief. I have … had my reasons to be wary of people. After I talked to the outlanders and found out about the Carja civil war, I became suspicious and wondered if the ‘Shadow Carja’ – what they call themselves, from what I’ve heard – might try to cause an incident here. Teersa did say she would consider speaking to you. I am glad she did.”

“Your suggestion, bold as it was, was based on a good intuition. Thank you.” Sona went on to say, “Aloy, it is fortunate you survived your … shall I say, risky endeavor at the Judging Grounds. As you were taken inside All-Mother Mountain by the High Matriarchs’ permission, I have to assume it was for a special reason. Are you able to tell me what that entailed?”

Aloy nodded. “I was taken there to rest, heal, and commune with All-Mother. Teersa, who was with me, will tell you everything I say is true: All-Mother spoke to me, and entrusted me with a task that will take me beyond the Sacred Lands.” Aloy showed her Seeker Mark to Sona.

Sona’s jaw dropped a fraction, and Vala turned to stare openly at Aloy. Just above a whisper, Sona uttered, “May the Goddess protect.”

“Also, I asked my boon of Teersa, and the High Matriarchs all agreed: Rost is no longer an outcast,” announced Aloy.

Sona gave Aloy a warm smile. “Rost reaped honor before he was shunned. I was glad to know him, but tribal law forbade me from ever talking to him. If I see him again, I will let him know the High Matriarchs’ decision.” Sona’s voice grew solemn. “However, those cowards and Corrupted Demons which attacked the Embrace have not yet been driven off our lands. I would ask you, Aloy, to join me in ridding us of this threat.”

“Gladly,” said Aloy. “I will join you and your Braves wherever the need may be.”

To Vala, Sona said, “My scouts have reported a digging by these cursed attackers in an out-of-the-way area most Braves do not go. I would have you join me as we prepare to attack.”

Vala stood up straight and nodded sharply. “Yes, War-Chief.”

Aloy thought for a moment, then asked, “Actually, War-Chief, could I take Vala with me on the way to joining you? One of the tasks All-Mother set was to clear the Corruption from our lands, and I am almost certain there is at least one zone where Corrupted machines have gathered. If I can clear those out with Vala helping me, it would be safer for other Nora to travel.”

Vala added, “Whatever you think is best, War-Chief. I would be happy to join Aloy, though.”

Sona crossed her arms, thinking for a moment. She nodded, seemingly to herself, and said, “A good idea. I would not want my Braves having their ranks reduced further by risking attacks from such machines on the way. And bandits have been sneaking into Nora lands as well; the roadways are becoming much less safe outside the Embrace.

“Join us far to the east of Devil’s Thirst. The Matriarchs only forbid going _into_ the ruins. Stay well outside them and you will be untainted. Also, the Matriarchs permit going as far west as Hunter’s Gathering and as far north as the edge of the Valleymeet, where the river flows out of Devil’s Grief.” It was clear Sona was saying this mostly for Aloy’s benefit.

Aloy nodded. “Rost only told me of the Embrace. He chose not to say much about what was outside it, probably to avoid making me too curious.”

Vala gave Aloy a wry smile. “I think that pretty much was bound to fail, considering you asked a lot of questions of the outsiders.”

Aloy perked up, remembering. “Sona, if I may ask – what happened to them? One of my other tasks is to find the man, Olin. Teersa agrees with me that he may have told the attackers about the Proving, somehow.”

Sona’s lips thinned. “If this is true, that man will not be safe from a single Brave on Nora lands.”

“Olin may only be a small part of the puzzle, Sona,” warned Aloy. “The truly responsible ones who gave the orders are probably still hiding outside the Sacred Lands, believing we would never send someone to track them down.”

“Very well. I will instruct my Braves to hold him under guard should he ever return, so that you may ask your questions of him. As it was, the outlanders saw part of the Proving, but when the new Braves began taking the slip-rope off the mountain and warning of an attack, we sent them off as quickly as possible.”

 _That happened in my dream-vision, too, according to Erend_ , thought Aloy. _The Matriarchs must’ve been frantic, especially after I’d warned Teersa the Shadow Carja might attack._

Aloy looked out across the lands to the north and said, “I have some Corrupted zones to begin clearing out. I assume you and your Braves will head northeast later today?”

“Yes. Don’t take too long clearing those areas of Corrupted machines. I will give the order to attack no later than dawn tomorrow, after I have placed my Braves to attack.”

Vala said, “We’ll be there.”

With that, Aloy reached for Vala’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze before venturing towards a ladder. “No time to waste!”

Not long after that, they were on the walkway heading towards the South Embrace Gate; Aloy knew of one Corrupted area they could clear out, which would give her and Vala some practice in teamwork.


	11. Chapter 11

Aloy stopped suddenly, pushing Vala’s shoulder down as she crouched in the red grass off to the right of the rise towards the tall ruin of the Old Ones – the ruin Aloy knew to have once been called the “Air Combat Academy”.

She had keyed on her Focus as they approached, expecting to just see the four Corrupted Scrappers. Instead, she’d gotten an unwelcome surprise: A Corruptor was stalking the landscape as well, its definite red-tinged outlines leaving no ambiguity whatsoever.

In addition, the Corruptor had snared some extra machines, so now Aloy and Vala faced five Scrappers, three Striders, _and_ a Corruptor.

Aloy tapped off her Focus and ground out, “ _Shit_.”

“That’s not good, I take it,” Vala said.

Aloy shook her head. “This device I have on my head – it’s called a Focus. It lets me…” She had never had a good explanation for what it did, but she went with what she’d once told Erend. “Basically it lets me ‘see the unseen’. It has a way of seeing machines that you might not see with your eyes because they’re behind a wall or a building.”

Vala’s eyes widened. “That’s…” She swallowed nervously, “Okay, I’m not going to say it’s tainted, because I caught you using it at the Proving. You must’ve somehow known the attackers were coming and couldn’t tell us right away. But, Aloy, it’s from the Metal World, isn’t it?”

Aloy adjusted her stance in the grass; crouching wasn’t that comfortable if you did it too long. She looked at Vala, willing her to not react badly. “It is. I won’t say exactly how I got it, because I know the Matriarchs might cast you out or otherwise punish you if you accidentally said something. But it’s not evil, Vala. I promise.”

Vala nodded. “I’ll believe you.” She reached out to clasp Aloy’s shoulder. “So, what are we doing now?”

“Okay, this will be tougher than I expected, because what my Focus told me is the machine that Corrupts others is nearby – the ‘Corruptor’, I guess we’ll call it. There are also five Scrappers, three Striders,” Aloy said as she half-consciously ticked off her to-do list on her fingers.

Vala’s expression grew thoughtful. “That _is_ helpful. So, the Corruptor first?”

Aloy grinned. “I like the way you think. Let’s make some Fire Arrows, then sneak closer. We can go around these bushes and to the back of the ruin. If I guess right we’ll have some good natural defences and can take down the Corruptor so it doesn’t try to convert other machines that come by.”

A few minutes later, Aloy had a full quiver of Fire Arrows, as did Vala. She could hear the blood rushing in her ears as her heart rate picked up once they left the natural cover and began slipping around the back of the triangular-halled ruin.

Once they were level with the upper floor of the ruin, Aloy whispered, “We can do this two ways: through there, or around the other side.”

Vala thought for a couple of seconds, then suggested, “Let’s split up. You can follow the machines even if you can’t see them, so I’ll keep going up that way and around; you go through the building.”

“Good idea. Once I get in a good spot to take out the Corruptor, I’ll fire the first shot. You start hitting it as well, and hopefully between the two of us it won’t be able to do much damage. Then we can get the other machines.”

There was one Scrapper up on the same level as Aloy, but the rest of the machines were milling around by what remained of the flat area in front and to one side of the building. So all she needed to do was sneak up on it – which was easier said than done: she had to sneak up behind the broken half-wall which separated the back of the hall from the clear area up front, _and_ watch for holes in the floor, treading cautiously as she did so.

Luring the Scrapper over had been relatively easy to do; its lights went yellow, as usual, and it cautiously began pawing its way closer to Aloy, her spear at the ready. Just as the front half of its body appeared in front of Aloy, she was already leaping into action, jabbing her spear into the Scrapper’s most critical spot.

Unfortunately, it got very messy after that: a gout of black-red Corruption splashed out at Aloy, and as her hands burned she hissed in pain, nearly releasing her spear and leaving herself vulnerable. Just before the searing in her hands grew unbearable, she yanked her spear back, and then jabbed again, right at the Scrapper’s skull and sending it collapsing down around her in a clatter of sparks and Corruption.

Aloy quickly crouch-walked away, hiding behind the wall and dropping her spear next to her. _Too used to using Fire Arrows,_ she chastised herself as she rummaged around in her supply sack, sighing in relief at seeing a Corruption antidote she’d packed along out of habit. She hadn’t even remembered slipping it in at the time, but she gladly gulped down half of it, knowing that within the day it would heal her, leaving her as though she hadn’t just messily killed a Corrupted machine.

To help for the immediate duration, Aloy rubbed some Salvebrush paste over her hands, then quickly got her bow and Fire Arrows ready. She keyed on her Focus, checking for Vala and the Corruptor: Vala was crouched some distance away, telling Aloy she’d found a good camouflage spot. The Corruptor was marching around in what looked like a normal patrol path it had worked out for itself.

She crept over to the side of the building with open spaces where what the Old Ones called “glass” had used to be. Convenient, now, since all Aloy had to do was ready three Fire Arrows at once, then stick them through the slot and wait for Vala to catch on.

Sure enough, Aloy could see Vala readying her own Fire Arrow just off to the right; she had caught the slight wisp of flame peeking out from the building.

 _Wait for it_ , thought Aloy.

Sure enough, the Corruptor clanked into view, its snout facing Vala, but apparently the machine had not sensed her yet.

“Now!” bellowed Aloy as she let loose her arrows.

Vala’s followed a second later, and Aloy whooped. Flames began engulfing the Corruptor, and Aloy and Vala each began pelting it with more Fire Arrows. In the middle of the attack, Aloy spotted the heatsink cylinder poking up from the machine. She quickly nocked two Hunter Arrows and aimed at that exact spot; the arrows landed true, severely damaging it. The cylinder on the Corruptor’s back began whirring loudly, and Aloy quickly switched back to Fire Arrows, readying her aim at that component to try and overheat it before it began firing at either her or Vala.

As it happened, a Corrupted Strider galloped past, and Aloy made a split-second change in her aim, then let her arrow fly. She quickly rolled away from the wall, hoping Vala had caught on to her shooting the blaze container on the Corrupted Strider.

**_BLAM!_ **

Flames momentarily shot through the openings in the wall where Aloy had been a few moments before, and as she ran to the front of the ruined building she could hear a loud screeching and clanking, telling her that the Corruptor had collapsed from the damage inflicted on it.

 _Now for the rest_.

Aloy quickly checked her stock of Fire Arrows, judging she’d gone through about one-third of her supplies. Readying two more on her bow, she stepped out onto the top of the still-intact staircase, and aimed at the nearest Corrupted Strider’s blaze container, which was currently running towards the Corrupted Scrappers surrounding Vala.

After that, she launched arrow after arrow at the Scrappers near her, knowing the Strider over by the other ones would—

**_BLAM!_ **

Vala was yelling something, but Aloy couldn’t hear it over the machine howls as she dodged and weaved, trying to avoid their laser shots and the Corruption pooling off of them when they leaped at her. A moment later, Vala was rushing up on Aloy’s right, launching volleys of arrows at the Scrappers now surrounding Aloy.

A few minutes later, all the machines were dead, collapsed in heaps of wrecked metal and Corruption.

Aloy, her chest heaving with the effort of fighting while still recovering from the battle at the Proving, looked over at Vala and grinned. Vala, her hands braced on her knees as she breathed heavily, shook her head in amazement. “I wasn’t sure we could do it!”

Aloy let out a wheezed laugh as she stretched, working out the kinks in her shoulders. “Well, good thing we were helping each other, right?”

Vala grinned as she stood. “Good trick with the blaze on the Striders! That first one you shot exploded just as it ran past the Corruptor towards me, and both went down just like that! And then when those two Scrappers were coming for me, same trick! The Strider took them both out and I yelled thanks and then came to join you to help finish these ones off.”

“Thanks again.” Aloy snapped her fingers, remembering. “Vala, I need to do something. I’m going to figure out how the Corruptor does that thing where it turns machines mad.” At Vala’s skeptical look, Aloy said, “Don’t worry. I have a Corruption antidote – already drank some earlier, and I got some Salvebrush paste on my hands to try and keep the Corruption off.”

Aloy handed what was left of her antidote to Vala, who followed her over to the Corruptor. She could see, a short distance away, the carcass of the Strider which had exploded near the Corruptor, and further back, the Scrapper and Strider carcasses in a rough semicircle around Vala's hiding spot. As Aloy knelt and began working, she mused, “Those attackers who got driven off from the Southern gate had this with them, if I remember right. They must’ve left this here, so it could corrupt more machines for a later attack, or just to make it harder for us to chase them down.”

Vala, standing to Aloy’s left as she crouched by the machine carcass, said, “Makes sense.”

Aloy began rummaging around the insides of the machine, and – “Aha!” She extracted a very familiar-looking cylindrical object from the machine and hefted it. Then, she keyed on her Focus, enabling the local connectivity option again. Sure enough, her Focus began exchanging signals with the override module, and they linked up flawlessly!

Aloy stood up and grinned. “Just a couple loops of wire and we’ll be good to go.” So saying, she began securing the override module to her spear, then checked to make sure it wasn’t loose. She clasped Vala’s shoulder and said, “It’s time to get ourselves a Strider.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some more Aloy/Vala beginnings here :)

At the Strider site not far to the north of the formerly Corrupted zone, Aloy smiled in satisfaction as the override module successfully linked up with and transformed the Strider, just as it had in her dream-vision.

Aloy stood up and looked around at the other Striders, making sure they were still far away enough to not notice the change in one of their fellow machines. Since the coast was clear, she hopped up on top of it, her knees almost automatically going to the right spots to nudge the Strider this way or that. She extended her hand out to Vala, who stared in awe.

“It’s tame?” gasped Vala. She reached out tentatively, still processing this changed state of affairs as her hand hovered near the Strider's side.

“I’d say so,” Aloy replied.

“You’re the one with a … Focus, so I guess I’ll go with that.” Vala reached out, gripping Aloy’s hand to help pull herself up onto the Strider. Once behind Aloy, she hesitantly put her hands on Aloy’s shoulders. “This is okay, right?”

Aloy said, “Let’s try that for now. I’m gonna, let’s see here…”

Aloy nudged with her knees and ankles, gripping two of the blue cords along the machine’s “neck”. Obligingly, the Strider began trotting forwards down the pathway. With two people, it didn’t seem too bad; Aloy was used to the very real-feeling bouncing from this walking speed from whatever that dream was, and so let her body shift in tandem. Vala, unused to it, was holding onto Aloy’s shoulders more tightly.

Aloy turned her head and said, “Just go ahead and wrap your arms around my stomach.” An impish smile quirked her lips as she teased, “It’s not like you haven’t probably wanted to do that anyway.”

“ _Aloy!_ ” Vala gently thumped Aloy’s shoulder as she laughed; Aloy could just see the slight red tinge against Vala’s skin before she turned back to look ahead down the road.

But Vala _did_ wrap her arms around Aloy and press herself up a bit more closely against Aloy’s back. Ignoring the slight increase in her heart rate, Aloy announced, “Okay, I’m gonna go a bit faster. Ready, Vala?”

“Yep!”

Aloy nudged once more with her knees and ankles, and the Strider sped up, taking them at a gentle canter as they went northward along the road with the river on their right. They easily ate up the distance which would have been monotonous walking.

As they travelled, Aloy would key on her Focus occasionally, scanning to her left and right to be sure no Corrupted machines were wandering around. The fact that the first Corrupted zone they’d come across was _different_ from what Aloy “remembered” was a warning: things would change more and more, and Aloy’s apparent foreknowledge would become less and less useful.

The broad strokes of what was to come would be unaffected, granted – since HADES would come for the Spire in the end, and Aloy _would_ need to crash the Focus network as well as get the Master Override at GAIA Prime; equally, though, how Aloy chose her next steps could change a lot of secondary events. But before she could consider them in detail, Vala’s grip on Aloy loosened and she pointed ahead. “We’re coming to Devil’s Thirst.”

They were, in fact, coming up to the fork in the road which would take them either straight through the wide grassy pathways amid the ruins, or off to the left towards Mother’s Rise, or off to the right to veer near the Tallneck.

As if that last had called it into existence, a distant booming noise rolled over the land from the distance, and Vala started. “What was that?!”

Aloy pointed at the ponderously shifting disk atop the skeleton-like neck which could be seen poking above some ruins in between them and it. She said, “That. Rost told me about them once: they’re called Tallnecks.”

Vala shivered. “I wouldn’t like to be near one of those.”

Aloy nodded. “He said he went near one once and it seemed to ignore him, but its feet are huge enough to step on anything and crush it. We’ll go off far to the right and find a rise, then we’ll go up along those hills and see if we can spot that digging ground. So we’ll be giving that Tallneck a wide berth.” Aloy pointed, then nudged the Strider off the path and across the river.

Vala said, “Mother once mentioned a metal tower that’s around here somewhere. She says it’s the closest you should get to the ruins.”

Aloy, remembering, nodded. “Then let’s start there.”

* * *

At the tower, Aloy pointed. “See that rock on the cliff there? I bet there’s a pathway from there we can follow and stay out of Devil’s Thirst.”

Vala said into Aloy’s ear, “So let’s go, then.”

“Unfortunately, we’ll probably have to leave the Strider here. I don’t think it’s really made for steep hills and rock faces.”

“Aw. But I liked being close to you,” teased Vala.

Aloy chuckled, shaking her head in bemusement. “Is this what ‘flirting’ is? I overheard someone say that at the bed-house when I was getting ready to sleep. So does that mean you holding my hand there was also ‘flirting’? And was I doing that when I was teasing you about putting your arms around me?”

Aloy was honestly curious. In her dream, she had never quite known what to make of Petra’s, Erend’s or Avad’s interest in her, managing to skillfully deflect or just outright ignore whatever undercurrents were in their conversations, not that eager to explore what they truly meant (though she _had_ realized enough to deduce Avad was letting his grief cloud his judgement). Even Vanasha telling her she’d show her a “proper thank you and welcome” had hinted of things, but Aloy wasn’t exactly sure what that entailed. And of course, with Ikrie there had been the fact that she’d just lost Mailen.

So there hadn’t really been a lot of opportunity for Aloy to discover things other Nora did which, she assumed, ended up making babies more often than not.

Vala chuckled as well. “Actually, yes, I was flirting with you. I mean, I thought you kind of already had the idea when I told you I was interested and you said wait till after the Proving.”

Aloy sighed and got off the Strider, then helped Vala off afterwards. She rubbed her forehead, considering what to say. Finally, she said, “I did, yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’m really sure what we do next. I mean, did you know anyone who…?”

“Well, my brother Varl has a woman who might be his mate eventually; her name’s Fia. It started out with them making silly grins at each other when they thought nobody else was watching, and then at last year’s Proving I saw them dancing with each other and then they were _kissing_.” Vala’s mouth quirked in a half-smile. “Beyond that, I’m better off not knowing. But I do kind of know how relationships like that can go.”

 _Fia._ Aloy wondered if she might not be the same Fia who needed to get Dreamwillow.

“Fair enough.” Aloy turned to look again at the rise. “But we should get going and clear out any more Corrupted machines on the way.”

Vala nodded. “I’m with you.”

At the crest of the rise, near the roughly oval-shaped large rock where they could overlook the valley below, Vala remarked, “We’re nearly as high up as that tower.”

Aloy said, “And you can see the Tallneck from here. Sort of, anyway.” She craned her neck, looking off to her left around the rock. She then turned back to Vala and said, “We should go. C’mon.”

With that, the two Braves began travelling northward, following the trail which straddled the edge of the cliffs overlooking Devil’s Thirst to their left. Aloy regularly checked her Focus, and at one point, just below a rock face they’d need to climb up, she caught the telltale red marks of some Corrupted Watchers and Scrappers.

Aloy whispered, “Corrupted machines up there; get your Fire Arrows ready. Climb up and hide next to me.”

Vala nodded and began making some while Aloy leapt up, grabbing a handhold and pulling herself up to the small clearing, giving her a better view of the machines themselves. As she crouched, silently slipping into some tall grass nearby, Vala pulled herself up as well, crouching next to Aloy as they surveyed: four Watchers, two Scrappers.

Aloy whispered, “My Focus tells me things about the parts of the machines. That box at the top of the Scrapper – have you ever hit one with an arrow?”

Vala shook her head. “Never had the chance; usually they’re too busy running at me, even when I’m hiding. How does that work?”

“I’ll explain later. But my Focus is telling me it’s a critical part of the Scrapper. Hit that, and they go down instantly.”

Vala grinned. “Handy!”

Aloy wasted no further time, nocking two Fire Arrows on her bow. “I’ll take one Scrapper, you take the other. Then the Watchers.”

With that, Aloy let her arrows fly, and they landed true, inflaming the Scrapper off to the right, while Vala’s arrows got the one to their left.

Sure enough, between the flames and good aim at the Scrappers’ radar boxes, the machines staggered for a few steps, then crumpled down, becoming useless heaps of metal.

The Corrupted Watchers all leaped into the air for a moment, their eyes going yellow in alarm as they perked up once they hit the ground, then upon spotting the destroyed Scrappers, their lights went red. Aloy quickly readied her Fire Arrows, then began loosing them, aiming at one Watcher after the other. Between her and Vala, they made quick work of the Watchers, which all collapsed at the same time, sparks flying as the light went out of their eyes.

Vala cautiously sidled up next to a Watcher and said, “Hey, Aloy; this one looks a little different. The tail’s a little sharper and there’s more armor on it.”

Aloy keyed on her Focus and checked. “Yeah, it is. That’s a ‘Redeye’ Watcher. You know how if you get close to a normal Watcher it’ll sometimes blind you? I’m guessing these ones will do it more often.”

Vala shook her head. “Sawtooths and new Watchers. Just more trouble for us.” She sighed. “I know you checked that Corruptor over like you were looking for something, but… I don’t know if it’s tainted for me to do that. You have the Seeker blessing.”

Aloy grasped Vala's shoulder. “As you are a brave accompanying a Seeker, I allow you to take machine parts from _any_ machine, okay?” Aloy tried to keep her ‘pompous Matriarch’ expression up for a few more moments, but ended up laughing as she dropped her hand, and Vala soon joined in.

They quickly rubbed some Salvebrush paste on their hands, and set to work. Aloy smiled at the ease with which Vala joined in, helping extract the usual parts of the machines: shards, lenses, hearts, and so on. Vala commented, “This Redeye Watcher heart looks just like a normal one.”

Aloy shrugged. “Whatever makes it a Watcher probably didn’t need to be changed, right?”

At that moment, Aloy remembered something – that parchment she’d seen in Daytower, about the Derangement: “ _But these appear no different to those harvested many years before Derangement began, with the same assortments of wires, braiding, lenses, hearts and so on. When these parts are subjected to the light of the Sun, or to Oseram experiments with fire and spark, they react as they always have._ ”

And right here, in front of her, was proof that whatever was changing the machines had nothing to do with the physical pieces they were pulling out of them.

 _It had always been in their minds_ – minds only HEPHAESTUS could alter.

Reality intruded once more when Vala pointed out one thing that _was_ different: the cables of the machines seemed prone to leaking, oozing the reddish substance, metalburn. Once they got it out safely, Aloy mused aloud, “I’m thinking we can use this to make a special kind of arrow. You know how this made the machines act differently, going red and all that? Well, if we could make this into a paste and dip an arrow in it, we might be able to temporarily make a machine turn on its companions.”

“You are full of surprises, Aloy.” Vala shook her head. “I would _not_ want to be on the wrong side of you. Not if you can fool a man into stepping into a trap to blow him up, or come up with a use for this stuff.”

Aloy stood. “You’d better believe it.” Her lip turned upwards in a snarl. “When we find that digging place, those bastards are gonna regret ever attacking us.” Even in this reality she was living, the Eclipse had dared to hurt her, Vala, and other innocent teenagers. And she knew, from her dream-vision, what they were capable of.

“My arrow will join yours in ensuring that,” Vala promised.

They continued striking out northward, but saw no more Corrupted machines until approaching a semicircular clearing down below, where they could hear the distant clanking of machines marching and men arguing and talking. Without a word, both women crouched, sneaking cautiously up to a large rock before peeking out to see the dig site. Aloy quickly keyed on her Focus, ‘tagging’ the men and machines she could see so she could keep track while she and Vala talked.

“What are they _doing_ down there?!” Vala hissed.

Aloy suspected they were trying to find a Deathbringer, but explaining how she knew was not something she could do then.

So she simply said, “I don’t know. But I did catch a few places where they have blaze containers. When Sona’s braves get here, we can tell them what we saw. So they have blaze which we can shoot at with fire – how many machines did you catch? I think I spotted at least four. No Corruptors, luckily.”

Vala nodded. “I think so, too. And what looks like … twenty men? Maybe thirty? Good thing is, we can use the ropes they put up on the edge of the rock over there.”

“A swift sneak attack; I like it.” Aloy quickly counted her tags and overestimated; she could have missed one or two. “I’d say twenty as well.”

“We could stay here, or slip back and wait,” Vala said.

“Let’s go back. Sona will have a lot of braves with her and I don’t want the noise to get their attention. I don’t see the scouts, either, so it’s just us for now.”

With that, they slipped back through the trees just behind them and went to sit in a semicircle made by a rock outcropping which would let them see back south along the trail for braves coming up towards the dig site.

Silence fell between them as Aloy and Vala checked their supplies, making as many arrows and blast bombs as they could carry, as well as exploring the immediate area for any herbs (medicinal and otherwise) to restock their healing supplies and potions.

All too soon, Aloy had nothing left to do with her hands, and she muttered, “Wish we could take that place out ourselves.”

Vala shook her head. “Too many of them, not enough of us.”

 _Aratak would beg to differ,_ thought Aloy wryly.

“What’re you smiling at?” wondered Vala.

“Oh – uh, I was… um, thinking about you,” Aloy said lamely.

“Interesting time to be thinking about me, but go on.” Vala shifted to look at Aloy.

Aloy turned to look at Vala, taking in the other woman’s dark brown eyes, her lips, her—just _everything_. She murmured, “You’re beautiful.”

Too late, her brain caught up with her mouth and heat rose to her face. Vala took one look at her flushed face and pressed her lips together, stifling her laughter.

When she could speak again, Vala gently shoved Aloy’s shoulder and said, “Wow. Me? Beautiful? I’m flattered.”

Aloy ducked her head and muttered, “I don’t know why I said that.”

“Hey.” Vala squeezed Aloy’s upper arm gently. “It’s all right. I’m not upset over it. I mean, while we’re confessing things I’ve got to say you’re beautiful, too. I really like your hair, especially.”

“Thanks.” Aloy could feel the heat slowly leaving her face, and decided it couldn’t hurt to make the waiting a little less boring.

She held out her left hand, which Vala took with her right. Aloy linked her fingers with Vala and said, “Can we…?”

“Sure.” Vala shifted so she and Aloy were touching shoulders and legs, and added, “So, while we’re holding hands, why don’t you tell me about the first machine hunt you did?”

Aloy, a fond smile crossing her face as she remembered, told Vala of discovering Watchers and Striders with Rost teaching her about how to avoid them, and shooting a blaze container off of one when she was just six years old.

Vala, in turn, told Aloy of life in Mother’s Heart, of growing up with an uncompromising War-Chief for a mother, and of her friends in the tribe. Vala’s voice was pleasant, and Aloy lost track of time almost completely.

The distant crunching of feet against the ground set the two women alert, and as they crouched, arrows at the ready, Aloy peered down the trail and slowly relaxed as she saw Sona’s form approaching at the head of a long file of braves behind her.

She grinned at Vala. It was time for some more payback.


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually had to load up my game and retrace all the steps I describe in this chapter, so I could describe things properly. X-D

Vala and Aloy stood facing Sona. Aloy took the lead and reported, “We cleared two packs of Corrupted machines between Mother’s Watch and here. One of them had the Corruptor, the machine with a tail that can slave other machines to its will.” Aloy gestured with her thumb behind her and said, “The dig site you mentioned is that way. Vala and I counted around twenty men and at least four machines. For some reason they installed slip-ropes from the top of this cliff down into their site, which makes it easy if we want to attack in force.”

Sona nodded. “Good.” She called around ten Braves to gather close and ordered them to get down below and hide on the opposite side of the dig site. To the rest, she let out one sharp whistle and gestured to march onwards. Aloy and Vala joined on either side of Sona.

Within the tree cover, the Braves began to spread out, crouching to stay as hidden as possible. Sona, Vala and Aloy sneaked up to the outcropping where the slip-lines started, and Aloy keyed on her Focus, only to stop, startled as she checked the machines.

“Sona!” she hissed. “They’ve got a Corrupted Sawtooth down there now. We missed it earlier, probably because they had it out on patrol. What if they saw the Corrupted machines Vala and I took out back there?”

Sona rubbed her chin. “Yes, we saw them as we walked by. But that Sawtooth could be a problem. Could they have laid a trap for us?”

Aloy began to recall she had found a Corrupted Sawtooth Sona had taken down in her dream-vision (just before an uncorrupted Sawtooth had nearly gotten her but for Sona’s arrow). Why the Sawtooth had been away from the dig site, Aloy had never questioned. But now, she wondered, why _had_ it been there? Had it merely been placed as a precaution, with the Eclipse unconcerned with its existence or demise, as long as it delayed or attacked Braves?

But now, it had been _brought_ to the dig site. Could an Eclipse member have retrieved it, believing it to be worthwhile extra protection against a potential army coming north from Mother’s Watch? Or was it simply coincidental?

Aloy looked at Vala, who swallowed nervously. She turned back to Sona and said, “I can’t say for sure. If they’re on guard, maybe we can blow up the blaze containers they have? Use the element of surprise to confuse them?”

Sona nodded sharply. “Aloy – Vala – go join the Braves I sent as an advance force down below. I’ll spread the rest out up here to attack from above. When the first blaze container explodes, that will be our signal to begin.”

Aloy and Vala nodded and crept back towards the tree cover, then backtracked to the small crevasse they had had to jump over on the way to the dig site. They quickly navigated the hand-holds down to the bottom, then crouched between the cliff walls as Aloy tapped on her Focus briefly. She pursed her lips, then whispered to Vala, “Watch out for the Fire Bellowbacks.” She pointed out towards the clearing where a blue glow could be caught slowly moving around – the eyes of one of the Bellowbacks she’d tagged in her Focus.

Vala shuddered. “Sona said to Varl and me that we might see one or two on the way to Mother’s Crown after I won my Proving.”

“As long as we’re quiet we can bypass them. Let’s go.”

On their left, Aloy noticed the barely-recognizable ruins of what once was probably a house, similar to that of Elisabet’s when she had gone to the woman’s final resting place.

Carefully hugging the rocky cliffs as they set off to the right, they went northward again and forded the two waterfalls which came together just to their left to flow onward from the mountains above. Vala tapped Aloy’s shoulder. “Striders.”

Aloy nodded back, secure in the knowledge that Striders tended to have poor faraway vision, and they quickly continued on, slipping down the slope which was the bank of yet another river. On the other side, Aloy checked her Focus again. “Shit. Watchers this time.”

“Normal or Corrupted?” wondered Vala.

“Corrupted. They must’ve been posted here as an advance guard. Good thing Sona’s Braves didn’t alert them.”

Upon checking her Focus again, Aloy realized why: the Braves had decided to trace the river westward and were approaching the dig site from farther west rather than risk injury from the Corruption the machines emitted.

Aloy grinned. “So, feel like testing your stealth kills?” She wasn’t quite sure why she wanted to show off to Vala, but after fighting two Corrupted Thunderjaws and a Daemonic Thunderjaw – even if just in a very real-seeming dream – sneaking around two Corrupted Watchers felt … wrong.

Vala raised one eyebrow. “If you want to.”

“First one to kill a Watcher doesn’t have to make rabbit stew tonight,” Aloy said.

Vala smirked. “Oh, this is happening, is it?”

Aloy didn’t bother answering; she just unlimbered her bow, nocked two arrows to be sure, and remaining crouched, she aimed dead-center for the eye of the unaware Watcher marching the grounds on patrol.

Two _THWACK_ s a split-second apart, and two Watchers collapsed to the ground in a heap, the blue spark-fizzing dying out shortly after that.

Vala chuckled. “So we’re tied. Guess that means we need to do best of three?”

Aloy rolled her eyes good-naturedly. “Sure.” She touched Vala’s arm and said, “Come on. Let’s join the Braves so we can let them know about the Corrupted Sawtooth.”

“Bad enough they were fighting regular Sawtooths outside the Embrace a while ago,” groaned Vala.

She wasn’t wrong. Corrupted machines, Aloy had found, were tougher and stronger, as though whatever was driving them had pushed them beyond what they normally were capable of.

 _Still,_ thought Aloy as they proceeded, _such machines could still be defeated with careful planning._

* * *

A familiar person was leading the group of Braves: Dran.

Aloy couldn’t help but smile at seeing him unharmed, unlike the time when he’d staggered up to the clearing she had investigated (and where she’d found that the Eclipse vultures had been having themselves a nice little lunch before sending Corrupted machines into the trap they’d baited for the angry Braves coming after them), when she was trying to find Sona. [1]

Aloy also spotted Orn, the nervous Brave who she’d delivered supplies to for Sona. To Dran, she said, “Hi. I’m Aloy.”

“And I’m Vala.” Vala reached out to grip arms in the traditional manner, to which Aloy followed suit.

“Sona sent you?” Dran said. He frowned. “Something has changed, hasn’t it?”

Aloy nodded. “We saw a Corrupted Sawtooth at the dig site. It wasn’t there earlier.”

Dran shook his head. “Sawtooths. Deadly, they are.”

Aloy looked around and spotted what looked like a slip-rope in the distance. She pointed to the left of it and said, “I bet there’s a way we can sneak up there if we’re careful. Sona’s Braves will be on that side—” Aloy pointed high up off to her right. “We’ll be on the other side. They’ll wait for us to start the battle.”

Dran nodded. “Then let us prepare.”

Aloy and Vala fell into step behind Dran as the group of Braves stuck to trees and grasses to keep a low profile as they found a pathway that rose up between two rock faces. Near the end, they could see a sloped part of the rock that was just barely scalable. As they veered off to their right, the crane used by the Eclipse came into view, and they could see the men and machines, and hear their noises below.

The ominous clanking of the Sawtooth, most of all, could be heard as it prowled around the tall tree below and to their right. Dran, unable to help himself, drew in a sharp breath, as did Vala at the sight.

Aloy, for her part, unobtrusively checked with her Focus to see if more men had arrived as well. As far as she could tell, there was still around twenty of them. She pivoted a bit to her left and leaned in, Dran and Vala reciprocating.

“Vala and I will get that Sawtooth. Once a blaze container explodes, use your Fire Arrows at anything that moves first. Then regular arrows.”

Dran nodded. “May the Goddess protect.”

“You as well,” Aloy replied, with Vala adding her own wishes for the other Braves’ safety.

Aloy and Vala quietly slipped off to the right along the peak of the rock face down towards a small V-shaped gap that led near a rocky outcropping where, if they were lucky, they could slip into a copse of trees undetected.

As they crouched, now with a clearer view of the crane and the Sawtooth, Aloy pointed. “See the trees? Let’s get in there.”

So saying, Aloy gently let herself down into a natural nook created by the outcropping they were on and the rock face behind them, where it was nearly impossible to be seen by anyone (she hoped, at any rate). Then from there it was a short crouched walk to the tree cover, and a careful, cautious step-by-step journey to some tall grass just under the tree closest to the lone tree the Corrupted Sawtooth was patrolling around.

Aloy checked her Focus again, seeing the ominous red lines of the Corrupted Sawtooth, hissing as she felt the heat of a nearly Corruption puddle forming as it turned to walk back around the tree. Off to her right, she could detect purple triangles rising up from something. Sure enough, it was a ball of blaze just sitting on the ground next to an Eclipse minion.

She let out a wry chuckle. “Idiots.”

Vala, to her left, tapped her shoulder and whispered, “What is it?”

Aloy leaned in and whispered back, “See that guy? There’s a container of blaze someone just _left_ there, sitting near him. We’ll make him pay for that mistake soon enough.”

Vala grinned.

Aloy continued, “Then I’ll… it’s hard to explain. But I have a way of ‘calling’ a machine over to me. I think it has to do with my Focus being able to send out a very specific signal. Anyway, I’m gonna lure that Sawtooth over. Get on my right side. When I hit it in the right spot that critically injures it, I want you to shoot whatever you can – spear, arrows, I don’t care what – into its head. Then I want you to launch anything with fire at that blaze. With luck, it’ll explode and take him out right away.”

Vala’s eyes widened. “We’ll be… killing people.”

Aloy’s jaw set. “It’s them or us. Are you ready?”

“Yeah, I… I get it. We need to stop them before they do it to us again.” Determination now on her features, Vala nodded. “Let’s go. Where’s that Corruption antidote?”

After Aloy and Vala finished off the freshly prepared antidote from earlier that day, the two young warriors readied themselves as Aloy gently whistled towards the Corrupted Sawtooth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [1] When you do the War-Chief’s Trail quest to investigate where all the machines attacked the Braves, if you go into the clearing and off to your left a bit before starting your CSI: Horizon analysis, you will find a campfire that glows purple when you trigger your Focus. Aloy will then bitterly remark that they ate well while waiting to spring their trap. Not everybody does this, and I only found out by accident on a NG+ replay.


	14. Chapter 14

Aloy had just enough tme to shift her head over, avoiding the spray of Corruption as her spear easily struck the same point on the Sawtooth as had happened when she’d gone out with Rost past the Embrace gates.

Unfortunately, that blow didn’t fell the machine completely, and she was already yanking her spear out for another blow even as Vala rapid-fired arrows right into each of the Sawtooth’s eyes, staggering it. One more hit with her spear right _there_ , in the mass of cables along its neck, and it collapsed in a heap, forcing Aloy and Vala back into the tree-shadow to avoid the gouts of Corrupted fluid bursting out in the machine’s death-throes.

Someone yelled, “What was that?!”

_Shit._

Aloy stayed crouched, holding her breath as one of the Eclipse men by the crane began checking the Sawtooth’s patrol path. She reached out to her right, letting out a small sigh of relief as her palm briefly touched Vala’s back. “Wait,” she whispered.

Aloy returned both hands to her spear, adjusting her stance as she tried to wait out the suspicious Eclipse priest, soldier, goon – she didn’t know and she really didn’t care. At the base of the tree, Aloy could see that she was actually a few feet higher up than the Eclipse man would be, so she had the advantage of surprise. The late afternoon sun would be partly in his eyes as well, making it harder to see into the tree cover.

Unfortunately, their luck was on thin ice, for he knelt by the Sawtooth and then called out, “Intruders! Someone killed the Sawtooth! Be on alert!”

Aloy wasted no time leaping out, the point of her spear primed for a sudden blow as she crashed into the man. She yelled, “ _Now, Vala!_ ”

Not waiting for an answer, she made short work of the cultist as the ground suddenly rocked and a short blast of wind rushed past Aloy. Yanking her spear back (and resolving to clean it off afterwards), she unlimbered her bow, nocked two Fire Arrows, and rushed up next to Vala, who was fitting another Fire Arrow to her bow as well.

Their backs to the tree they had been hiding near, the two began loosing Fire Arrows everywhere they could spot a man or a machine, and explosions rocked the ground and smoke shot into the air as the hidden Nora Braves rained down Fire Arrows and Blast Bombs from above to explode the blaze containers. Aloy’s Focus tags began to blink out as more Eclipse fell to the Nora attack.

Aloy spotted a lone Eclipse cultist with blaze canisters on his back and quickly aimed her Fire Arrow dead-center at them; the blow landed true, and just as he leaped down into the pit to try and join a couple of his fellow fighters who were the last of three she could spot—

**_BLAM!_ **

The three tags winked out in unison. One Scrapper was left, and flame rained down on the Corrupted machine at the far side of the pit from where Aloy was. Shortly after, it crashed to the ground with a wailing whine amid the now-familiar final burst of Corruption spraying out from it.

As the sounds of the battle subsided, Nora Braves poured down from the left and right, shouting their praises to All-Mother. Aloy heaved a sigh of relief and turned to Vala. “Good teamwork!”

Vala grinned. “You too.”

Sona, from inside the pit, called out, “Vala! Aloy!”

They quickly found a ladder descending into the pit and went to see the War-Chief. Aloy stopped momentarily, startled. _Varl was there!_ She hadn’t seen him in the line of Braves with Sona, and Vala had apparently also missed him, for she grinned and said, “Varl! I’m glad your spear joins ours.”

Varl nodded. “As am I. You and Aloy fought well.”

Sona broke in and said, “Varl was helping guard the Main Embrace Gate, which he did as well as he could. But I needed as many of us as possible for this expedition, so I have left Resh to guard the Embrace.”

Aloy couldn’t help but let out a muffled snicker, which she hastily turned into a cough. “Sorry. Um, breathed in some of that smoke earlier, I guess.”

Vala’s look of concern faded and she turned back to Sona, as did Aloy.

“What do we do now, War-Chief?” asked Aloy.

“I do not think we’ve fought off all the killers who tried to attack the Proving, and I would like to clear them from our Sacred Lands completely. I want you three to search this area – find anything you can about where the rest of these… _people_ are hiding.”

The way Sona had said that she might as well have called them the rudest word the Old Ones had ever invented to describe a human being. Between Aloy’s datapoint collections and what CYAN had told her, they could get _very_ colorful about it – especially when it came to what the people on Project Firebreak compared Dod Blevins to.

However, outwardly, Aloy simply nodded. “On it.”

Varl and Vala joined Aloy as they went towards one end of the pit, picking their way past dead Eclipse fighters. She kept her Focus on as she scanned left and right for anything (of course, she knew there would be a recorded message she’d find at the other end, but she had to play this one out). At Varl’s confused frown, Vala quickly explained, “It’s that triangular thing by her ear. It lets her ‘see the unseen’ as she says.”

“So that’s how you knew about the Sawtooth so quickly?” Varl asked, realization dawning upon him.

Aloy nodded, not wanting to break her concentration – and then she looked straight ahead and froze, a chill running down her spine.

“Look. Those are Corruptors.”

Sure enough, two inert Corruptors stood in a partially excavated state, their legs compacted together, with boarded platforms around them so the Eclipse men could examine the machines (and they _did_ mostly seem to be men, Aloy noted – but then, Carja society was male-dominated to begin with, and Helis’s own notions of strength seemed to largely come from his idea of masculinity).

Varl called, “ _War-Chief Sona!_ ”

Sona’s intake of breath as she came up to them was clearly audible. She barked, “Braves! Destroy these infernal constructions! Immediately!”

Not wanting to be in the way of the Braves now tearing at the Corruptors, Aloy led Varl and Vala back the other way, scanning as she did so. Sure enough, she caught a blaze trail; someone had stepped in some and apparently tried to scuff it off as they walked. Inside the small storage area made by the ‘supply-master’, if she remembered the term right, she found the recorded message on an Old Ones storage device.

In her dream-vision, she had just activated and played back the message internally on her Focus, but this time, she said, “I think I know how to get the message from this; my Focus is telling me there is one. But it’s normally meant to be … ‘played back’ – that’s the term for it – by someone else with a Focus.”

So saying, she began fiddling with the device, looking for something to do with messages. She soon spotted an “Options” screen which probably was like her Focus’s version thereof, and saw:

EXTERNAL AUDIO: FOCUS TRANSMISSION

She tapped that part of the screen and it changed to

EXTERNAL AUDIO: SPEAKER

Aloy grinned, then went to MESSAGE PLAYBACK and hit LATEST. A deep yet tinny-sounding voice emanated from the device, causing Vala and Varl to step back warily.

“ _Commanders! Over the past month, accidental blaze explosions have killed a dozen men. Here in the Ring of Metal, I’ve taken the precaution of placing our entire stockpile in a covered shelter safe from stray sparks and lightning. And I’ve posted guards to control access. I urge you to take similar measures, or suffer the consequences. Supply-master Thiran, out_.”

Varl licked his lips and shifted on his feet. “The Ring of Metal? But that’s…”

Aloy blinked. _Where had Varl’s vigor gone?_

Realization sank into her as she looked at Vala, who was similarly tense and concerned. _This_ version of Varl hadn’t had to deal with the grief caused by his sister’s death and the massive losses inflicted by the Eclipse in her dream-vision; he hadn’t had to channel all that into two sleepless days of repeated Corrupted machine attacks even as his mother had also disappeared while dispirited, depleted Braves returned to the Embrace.

Well, Aloy could supply enough of that vigor on her own.

Her shoulders squared, she stood straight up and marched back to Sona, Vala and Varl trailing her as she did so.


	15. Chapter 15

“There are more of these killers at a ‘Ring of Metal’. Do you know what that is?”

Sona pursed her lips and let out a low growl. “That is forbidden land – tainted! I have no choice but to go to the Matriarchs and ask for them to make an exception.”

When neither Varl nor Vala spoke up, Aloy snapped, “That’ll take too long. I’m a Seeker; I give my blessing for this. They hurt us, we’ll take our revenge – here and now.”

Sona eyed her warily. “The Matriarchs may not take the same view as you do.”

Vala stepped up next to Aloy and said, “Would the Matriarchs really tell us to stand down, knowing that killers of our tribe stand at our threshold, with more of those Corruptors and their machines to attack and weaken us? Aloy’s Seeker blessing should be enough!”

Finally, Varl _did_ step forward and say, “If the land is tainted by the killers who attacked our tribe, then let our attack sanctify it! Our blood spilled calls for theirs to be spilled in return!”

Sona thought for a few moments, then nodded decisively. “We shall meet at Red Echoes. Aloy, Vala – I trust you will continue to clear the Corrupted machines ahead of us as we march north.”

“Consider it done,” Aloy promised. To Vala, she said, “Join me at the slip-line away from here when you’re finished.”

Varl’s inquisitive look at the two of them portended some questions about the relationship between them, but at the moment, Aloy was more interested in ransacking any supplies left behind by the Eclipse men.

 _Also,_ she thought, _given that the message device she’d played back was keyed to Focus transmission initially suggested one of the men might have a Focus. What could she learn from it?_

With that, she began searching the bodies of the downed fighters as well as the supply caches in the area; off to the end of the dig site, she could see the Braves continuing to hack away at the partly-unearthed Corruptors. _Good. At least the Eclipse can’t use those ones_.

Luck was with Aloy as she searched a body near the slip-rope that led off the clearing back down to the lands below. A Focus sat near his ear, and as she peered at it under the light, its orange bar still glowed steadily. She weighed whether to try and break into it, but Vala’s approaching footsteps meant that had to be shelved for later. Aloy slipped the Focus into a pouch at her waist, then looked up and grinned. “Hey, Vala. Ready to go?”

Vala smiled back. “I sure am. Varl was pretty happy to see I was alive and unhurt even after the latest battle.”

 _You have no idea what that means to me_ , Aloy thought. That accomplishment would stay with her with every word and deed Vala said and did.

But all Aloy did was step to the rope and say, “Meet you down there! Time to get another Strider.”

* * *

The man standing in the middle of the pathway nearby some dead bodies brought Aloy and Vala atop the Strider to an abrupt halt.

 _Damn it. Creepy Nil_ , Aloy mentally groused. _Him and his Voice of the… whatever. Who names their bow, anyway?_

Out loud, she just called, “Outlander, whoever you are, you’re close to trespassing on Nora lands!”

Sure enough, Nil lazily replied, “Yes, yes, pain of death and all that awaits me from the Nora. But surely you can see these bandits aren’t in any pain at all, and yet they’re quite dead.”

Aloy frowned. “Bandits? This far south, already?”

Nil smirked. “When I heard of the troubles you Nora recently had while I was at Hunter’s Gathering – not hard to miss with those Oseram guards high-tailing it back to Daytower with a Sun-Priest and the Oseram arguing loudly about what it meant that the Nora had been attacked…” He left that point hanging, and Vala made a disgruntled noise at Nil’s casual commentary about the Nora attacks.

Aloy, having already filled in all of what lay behind Nil’s statement, knew that Erend and Olin were used to talking loudly; they would’ve made it pretty well-known that there had been an attack on the Proving, and any would-be bandits skulking around Hunter’s Gathering naturally wasted no time calling open season on any unwary Nora travellers.

Plus, that bandit camp by Devil’s Thirst sure hadn’t sprouted up out of nowhere. The war had forced the Nora to retreat from the Valleymeet, leaving a vacuum for opportunistic low-lives to slither on in for at least a couple of years. Even if the Nora rarely went to Hunter’s Gathering, there were always Oseram traders and Banuk wanderers travelling down from the Cut and the occasional Carja artisan, trader or noble wandering in from the west via Daytower. All easy pickings for bandits.

Outwardly, Aloy just rolled her eyes at Nil. “So… you decided to clean up after us, then? We can’t handle our own problems?”

Unfazed, Nil replied, “I’m just, shall we say, offering assistance. After all, no-one complains if bandits happen to die suddenly, but if you kill a boar and leave it all the tribes complain you’ve wasted the meat. And machines don’t quite get that spark in their eyes when you’re running at them.”

Vala called out over Aloy’s shoulder, “Look, we don’t have a lot of time. Our tribe is on the march; we’re about to clear out the killers who attacked us, and my friend and I are the advance guard.”

Nil shrugged. “That’s fair. But if you want to feel the sting of a different kind of battle, I’ll be near a bandit camp not far from what you call Devil’s Thirst. I’m waiting for a partner, but I’m starting to think they may not show up.”

“We may… consider it,” said Aloy carefully.

Nil’s very unnatural-looking grin prompted Vala’s grip to tighten just a bit around Aloy’s waist, and Aloy had to force herself not to recoil visibly. Nil was the kind of man you trod carefully around, even if he _did_ have a strict moral code for himself of a very twisted variety. “Farewell, Nora braves. I’ll clear out the mess here, of course. Wouldn’t want to disturb your fellow people. And if we do cross paths again, you must explain to me how you have tamed that machine.”

“You’re not curious _now_?” Aloy blurted.

“It _is_ a strange occurrence, but as you’ve just told me, you and your companion are in a hurry. No sense keeping you.” The strange reasonableness in Nil’s voice made Vala shift a bit closer to Aloy on the Strider.

With that, Nil turned and began ransacking the body farthest off the trail, and Aloy wasted no time setting her Strider off as quickly as she could.

Vala shuddered. “Who _was_ that? Is he Carja? Or is he even… with a tribe? I’ve never met _anyone_ who was that creepy!”

“I think we’re better off not knowing, at least right now,” Aloy said. And truthfully, she would rather not expose Vala to all that she had experienced outside of the Nora lands so quickly. Vala would no doubt grasp that sometimes you needed to do some dangerous things to help make the world safer, but it was one thing to do it as part of her tribe, and another to realize that sometimes you had to form unlikely alliances with people like Nil.

 _And would knowing more about Nil just make Vala think the Matriarchs are right and that the Nora should keep shutting out the rest of the world?_ Aloy found she didn't have a good sense of what the answer would be.

As the Strider continued clopping northward, silence descended around them as they resumed scanning for Corrupted machines to destroy on the way to the Red Echoes.


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the shortness of this one, but it really felt pretty self-contained to me. :) Also, I'd like to thank **Kitewalker** for looking this one over and offering suggestions!

Near the stone markers indicating paths to Devil’s Grief and Devil’s Thirst, Aloy’s triple-nocked Fire arrows landed smack against the Corrupted Sawtooth’s armor, igniting the machine from within. Vala, who had been doing tucks and rolls to get away from it, saw the machine turn back to Aloy as it prepared to launch itself at her.

Vala’s Precision arrow flew directly at the yellow component at the Sawtooth’s rear, sending it flying off to one side with a loud _SNAP_ , causing the machine to stagger; the damage from that, plus the flames licking at it from the inside, sent the machine collapsing into the grass, which was luckily still wet from a light rain earlier.

Aloy grinned. “Good teamwork!”

Vala, already striding up to the Sawtooth, smirked up at Aloy as she crouched to pick it over for shards and other possible useful parts. “Can’t complain about my choice of partner.”

Aloy grinned back, but some of her enthusiasm faded as she looked around at the machines they’d killed. There were definitely more of them than she remembered from that dream-vision.

“I really don’t like this. They left a Corruptor just outside the Embrace so it could keep turning machines mad and making them harder to beat, so they’ve got to have at least one more if these machines keep showing up.” Aloy pursed her lips. “They definitely are doing this to try and slow us down.”

Vala called over from the Sawtooth, “Well, we can’t expect it to be easy hunting all the time. But still, I’d rather not fight Corrupted machines. They’re tougher.”

Aloy wasn’t sure why the number of Corrupted machines had gone up from what she’d experienced in her dream-vision. Could it be because the Nora Braves had repelled their invasion better, meaning the Eclipse had decided to leave more Corrupted machines to prevent a reprisal from the Nora?

That didn’t bode well for how events might play out in Devil’s Grief or the Ring of Metal. _But_ she had an ally in her quest now, and that ally was already good with a bow.

“Hey, Vala, you done?” Aloy called as she searched for a suitable tree to use as a target.

Vala, having just packed away her Sawtooth heart, stood and walked over to Aloy. “I am now. What’s up?”

“I think we have a bit of time before we need to get going. If we’re going to be going up against more of those killers and more of those Corrupted machines it would really help to have you learn some stuff I’ve picked up. Have you noticed how I sometimes shoot two or three arrows at a time?” Aloy quickly demonstrated nocking two arrows to show what she meant.

Vala nodded. “Yeah. You want to show me how to do it?”

Aloy grinned. “I like a fast thinker. Ok, the trick here is that you might think it’s just like aiming and shooting one, but if you do it wrong you can end up making the arrows push each other away in flight, so neither of them hit the target, or one will just fumble off uselessly and the other one goes on. So you can end up wasting more arrows instead of hitting your target with more arrows.” She pointed at the tree she’d picked out. “Try hitting that tree, there, just below the branch at eye level.”

Vala nodded. “Got it. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.” So saying, she nocked two arrows like Aloy had done, and let fly – only to have them both fly uselessly a short distance, clacking against each other as they did so.

Aloy stood behind Vala’s back as she said, “Okay, two more.”

Trying not to think too much about how close she was to Vala, or how her hand kept touching Vala’s as she adjusted her handholds to compensate for the extra arrows, she murmured into her ear, “Try now.”

With two _thwack_ s, the arrows just hit the tree. Vala let out a disappointed groan. “Ugh. They separated just like you said!”

 _Well, I guess this means I’m going to be touching Vala a lot more today_ , Aloy decided.

Not that she ended up minding that much, nor Vala, judging from the way she kept subtly trying to push her back against Aloy’s chest, or the occasional wink she’d give Aloy before letting her arrows hit the tree. Aloy wondered if Vala could hear her heart pounding when she did things like that.

But Vala _did_ get better, and before long, Aloy had her reliably shooting three arrows at once, and striking the tree in a tight triangle. “Yes! I did it twice in a row, Aloy!” Vala raised a clenched fist in triumph.

Aloy, having finally been able to step back and go around to face Vala as she fired her arrows, applauded. “Great! This’ll really help me now that you know how to do this. We’ll be able to take down anything!”

Vala laughed and came up to Aloy, entwining their fingers together as she clasped Aloy’s hand. Aloy tried not to gasp at the sudden flip her stomach did at that touch, and trying to keep from showing it, responded with an awkward chuckle.

As she kept staring into Vala’s eyes, she suddenly felt as though everything else around her was far away, even the sounds of the forest receding into the distance as she stepped closer. Vala’s lips parted, and just as she raised her hand to gently caress Aloy’s cheek, a loud screech rent the air.

Still a bit befudded, Aloy let go of Vala’s hand and leaped back, looking this way and that to try and see what machine had intruded. Vala yelled, “Damn it! Of all the times to interrupt us, you _idiot Watcher_!”

Just as Aloy had an arrow nocked and ready to go, the machine on the other side of the trail abruptly collapsed in a heap of arcs, two arrows sticking out of its eye.

Vala, breathing heavily, looked sheepishly at Aloy. “I guess I overreacted a bit.”

Aloy burst out laughing and went to join Vala as they quickly scavenged the useful parts off the Watcher. “I’ll say you did!”

She whistled for the Strider, and they quickly set off toward Red Echoes. Neither of them quite seemed to want to bring up their near-kiss, and Aloy was oddly relieved to have something to preoccupy her for the moment.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at **blogquantumreality** on Tumblr!


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